Pachycoleus pusillimus (J. Sahlberg, 1870)

Golub, Viktor B., Vinokurov, Nikolay N., Golub, Natalia V., Soboleva, Viktoria A. & Aksenenko, Evgeniy V., 2021, True bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from the taiga zone of the mountainous Altai of Russia: the first records and new data on rare species, Ecologica Montenegrina 40, pp. 164-175 : 166

Pachycoleus pusillimus (J. Sahlberg, 1870)

Fig. 2

Material. Altai Republic, the vicinity of Artybash village: a swampy area on the margin of the forest, below the waterfall on the Oyrok (Third) River , 51º47'30.7" N, 87º19'8.2" E, 492 m a. s. l., on wet mosses, 30.07.2019 ( V. Golub), 1 male .

Distribution. European–West Siberian species. Northern and Central Europe and the mountains of Southern Europe. In European part of Russia it was recorded only from Karelia, Voronezh and Belgorod Provinces ( Prokin, 2008); in Asian part it was recorded only from Tyumen Province ( Ivanov 2015). This family was recorded for the first time from the Altai Republic and Altai as a whole.

Ecology. The species occurs in swampy habitats. In Western Europe, it almost always collected on Sphagnum mosses ( Heiss & Péricart 2007). In the European part of Russia (Voronezh Province) ( Golub 2004), and in Western Siberia (Tyumen Province) ( Ivanov 2015) the species was also collected on wet or dried mosses, non Sphagnum . In the vicinity of Artybash village a single specimen was collected on mosses in a small swampy meadow at the edge of the forest, however, Sphagnum was not found at the collection point.

Note. Until 2015, the species was known only from Europe. The previous finding of the species in Siberia ( Ivanov 2015) and our record from the Altai Mountains are the evidences of its wide range of the boreal type .

Figures

Figure 2. Habitat of Pachycoleus pusillimus (J. Sahlberg, 1870) and Saldula orthochila (Fieber, 1859) in the environs of village Artybash, Altai Republic (Photo by V.A. Soboleva).