The ground beetle tribe platynini bonelli, 1810 (Coleoptera, carabidae) in the southern levant: Dichotomous and interactive identification tools, ecological traits, and distribution

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Thorsten Assmann
  • Esteve Boutaud
  • Jörn Buse
  • Claudia Drees
  • Ariel Leib Leonid Friedman
  • Ingmar Harry
  • Fares Khoury
  • Eylon Orbach
  • Ittai Renan
  • Constantin Schmidt
  • Kilian Schmidt
  • David W. Wrase
  • Pascale Zumstein

The carabids of the tribe Platynini from the southern Levant (Egypt: Sinai Peninsula, Israel, Jordan) and adjacent regions of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia are reviewed in terms of species tax-onomy, ecological, distributional traits, and conservation biology. In addition to a classical dichotomous identification key to the 14 species of the region, identification tools are made freely available via the Xper3 knowledge database “Platynini, southern Levant”. Besides an interactive identification key, a matrix with character states for the species and single access identification keys are available. A database includ-ing all available records from the southern Levant is also provided. First faunistic records are recorded for Anchomenus dorsalis infuscatus from Sinai (Egypt), Olisthopus fuscatus from Lebanon and Iraq, and for O. glabricollis from Iraq. Threatened species are discussed, also with regard to the reasons of their decline. The majority of species lives in wetlands, especially on the shore of winter ponds and streams, which have been extremely degraded in the last decades.

Original languageEnglish
JournalZooKeys
Volume2021
Issue number1044
Pages (from-to)449-478
Number of pages30
ISSN1313-2989
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16.06.2021

Bibliographical note

We dedicate this work to the late Terry Erwin for his entomological performance and enthusiasm for carabidology. With this contribution, we would like to thank him for joint excursions and his manifold support for us. His splendid life’s work in carabidol-ogy and biodiversity research stimulates us greatly and we will never forget him. We thank Joachim Schmidt (Rostock) for his helpfulness in questions concern-ing the determination and synonymy of platynines. Christoph Reuter (Berlin) very generously supported us with carabid specimens from Lebanon and other countries in Southwest Asia. The same applies to Peer H. Schnitter (Halle), Kamil Orszulik (Frýdec-Místek), and Zbynek Kejval (Domažlice). Special thanks go to James Liebherr (Ithaca) and Riccardo Sciaky (Milan) for valuable comments on the manuscript during the review process. We thank also the Israel Nature Protection Authority for giving permits to study insects in the nature reserves. Thanks goes also to those scientists who supported us both in the field and in the collections, esp. Tamar Dayan, Netta Dorchin, the late Amnon Friedberg (all SMNHTAU), and Oded Salomon (Harashim).

Publisher Copyright:
© Thorsten Assmann et al.

    Research areas

  • Agonum, Anchomenus, Atranus, Ecological traits, Interactive key, Olisthopus, Orthotrichus, Phenology, Power of dispersal, Winter ponds, Xper3
  • Ecosystems Research

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