Oxythyrea funesta, (Poda von Neuhaus, 1761)

Alekseev, Vitalii I., 2018, Scarabaeoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera) Of The Kaliningrad Region (Russia): The Commented Actual Checklist, Assessment Of Rarity And Notes To Regional Protection, Acta Biologica Universitatis Daugavpiliensis 18 (2), pp. 111-152 : 139

75. O. funesta (Poda von Neuhaus, 1761)

Alekseev & Sakhnov 2000; Alekseev 2002; Alekseev & Bukejs 2010.

Voucher specimens: 6 [3 km E Cherniakhovsk, 10 May 2009; Cherniakhovsk, 21 June 2009; Sosnovka, 22 June 2010, 2 exp.; Divnoe, 08 July 2010; Yantarny, 12 June 2012].

Kaliningrad Region: Chern., Gur., Bagr., Pol., Zel.

Comments: Lentz (1879) and later Bercio and Folwaczny (1979) reported this beetle from northern Poland only. The species is considered to be “the southern element periodically appearing in Polish fauna” ( Szwałko 1989) and the most rare flower chafers in western Poland (Bunalski et al. 2015a). However, during the last twenty years the areal of the given species has essentially spread to the north and extended Latvia, Estonia and the St. Petersburg suburbs ( Roosileht 2003; Bukejs et al. 2006). The beetle is widespread in Lithuania (Tamutis & Dapkus 2013), Western Europe (Thomaes et al. 2016), and in Central Russia up to the Altai region ( Nikitsky 2016; Vondráček et al. 2018). Summarizing all these sources, the assumed centre of the pulsating species range should be situated in Eastern Europe and the migratory vector [=origin of invasion] in the Baltic region should be determined as southern and south-eastern (for Latvia) and south-eastern and eastern (for Lithuania, Poland and Kaliningrad Region). The different possible factors, induced grow of the species population are discussed in Tamutis & Dapkus (2013) and Thomaes et al. (2016). The last publication assumed the possibility of recolonization a large part of Northern Europe starting from the Czech Republic. Different authors ( Horák et al. 2013; Vondráček et al. 2018) supposed different factors for such spreading, between them a hypothetical shift in ecological preferences of the species. The change of land use after 1991 appears to be more significant factor in the Kaliningrad Region, however other factors cannot be excluded.

First specimen of this species in the Kaliningrad Region (Alekseev & Sakhnov 2000) was registered near Cherniakhovsk in 15 June 1996. Afterthat the species is repeatedly registered in ten different localities in 2009-2018 and can be recognized as widely distributed and frequent species in the Kalinigrad Region now. Adult beetles occur on different flowers and feed on pollen in May-September. It seems, the beetles from the Kaliningrad Region belong to O. funesta var. consobrina (Villa, 1833) because possess well-developed white pattern in young specimens.