Velia (Plesiovelia) caprai caprai Tamanini, 1947

Berchi, Gavril Marius & Kment, Petr, 2015, Review of the family Veliidae in Romania (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerromorpha), Zootaxa 3963 (1) : -

Velia (Plesiovelia) caprai caprai Tamanini, 1947

( Figs. 1 B, 2B)

Published records. Velia caprai: Davideanu et al. (2000) , Ilie (2005). Velia rivulorum (misidentification): Ilie (2005, 2009).

Material examined. ROMANIA: Arad county: Arăneag [stream], 46°12ʹ54ʺN 21°44ʹ43ʺE, 241 m a.s.l., 22. vi.2013, 1 ♂ (ap) 1 ♀ (ap). Bihor county: Budureasa [stream], 46°40ʹ50ʺN 22°31ʹ02ʺE, 442 m a.s.l., 23. vi.2013, 3 ♂♂ (ap) 3 ♀♀ (ap) 1 ♀ (ma). Caraș-Severin county: Socolari [intermittent stream], 44°56ʹ50ʺN 21°44ʹ08ʺE, 306 m a.s.l., 2. viii.2013, 1 ♂ (ap) 3 ♀♀ (ap). Harghita county: Miercurea Ciuc [stream], 46°23ʹ13ʺN 25°43ʹ18ʺE, 751 m a.s.l., 3. viii.2014, 2 ♂♂ (ap) 2 ♂♂ (ma) 4 ♀♀ (ap) 1 ♀ (ma). Hunedoara county: Dumbrava de Sus [stream], 46°14ʹ05ʺN 22°53ʹ09ʺE, 420 m a.s.l., 11. viii.2014, 3 ♂♂ (ap) 3 ♀♀ (ap). Maramureș county: Baia Sprie [stream], 47°41ʹ18ʺN 23°46ʹ10ʺE, 769 m a.s.l., 25. vi.2013, 1 ♂ (ap); Băița de Sub Codru [stream], 47°32ʹ43ʺN 23°05ʹ49ʺE, 256 m a.s.l., 24. vi.2013, 5 ♂♂ (ap); Borșa [stream], 47°37ʹ34ʺN 24°46ʹ02ʺE, 814 m a.s.l., 4. viii.2014, 1 ♂ (ap); Ruscova [stream], 47°50ʹ02ʺN 24°21ʹ17ʺE, 498 m a.s.l., 4. viii.2014, 1 ♂ (ap) 1 ♀ (ap); Săcel [stream], 47°36ʹ47ʺN 24°25ʹ49ʺE, 641 m a.s.l., 4. viii.2014, 9 ♂♂ (ap) 1 ♂ (ma) 5 ♀♀ (ap) 2 ♀♀ (ma); Săpânța [stream], 47°56ʹ24ʺN 23°41ʹ35ʺE, 340 m a.s.l., 26. vi.2013, 1 ♂ (ap) 5 ♀♀ (ap). Neamț county: Poiana Crăcăoani [stream], 47°03ʹ53ʺN 26°17ʹ18ʺE, 579 m a.s.l., 5. viii.2014, 2 ♂♂ (ap) 1 ♀ (ap). Sibiu county: Sărata, 4. v.2002, 15 ♂♂ (ap) 7 ♀♀ (ap), D.M. Ilie leg., DMIS [all specimens published as V. rivulorum (Ilie 2009) ]; Târnava Mică, ix.2001, 2 ♂♂ (ap) 6 ♀♀ (ap), D.M. Ilie leg., DMIS [male specimens published as V. rivulorum ( Ilie 2005) ].

Remarks. Though we found Velia caprai caprai in all the Carpathians, it was more frequent in northern Romania (Maramureș), where it is the only species that we identified ( Fig. 4 ). In the south-west we collected it from one site only, in a hilly area at the margin of the mountains, not far from one place where V. mancinii mancinii and V. saulii were found co-existing. In the Apuseni Mountains (western Romania) as well as in the eastern Carpathians, the sites where V. caprai caprai occurs alternate with those where V. saulii is present. Velia caprai does not occur in Dobrogea. It lives in streams and creeks at altitudes ranging between 200 and 800 m a.s.l. ( Fig. 5 ). In terms of biology and ecology, V. caprai caprai is one of the most studied Velia species; for various aspects of its biology see Murray & Giller (1991), Ditrich & Papáček (2009a, b, 2010), Ditrich & Koštál (2011) and Ditrich et al. (2011).

General distribution. Southern (non-Mediterranean), central and northern parts of Europe ( Andersen 1995). Rather recently recorded from Serbia and Ukraine (Transcarpathian Region) ( Protić & Živić 2007; Grandova & Prokin 2012). The records from Algeria, Turkey and central Asia should belong to other species ( Fent et al. 2011).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Males of Velia species in dorsal view. A— Velia affinis filippii, B— V. caprai caprai, C— V. mancinii mancinii, D— V. saulii, E— V. serbica. (Scale bar: 1 mm. A—Tulcea county: Luncavița, B—Bihor county: Budureasa, C, E—Caraș-Severin county: Băile Herculane, D—Hunedoara county: Vaidei). Photographs: Denis Copilaș – Ciocianu.

FIGURE 4. Distribution of Velia affinis filippii Tamanini, 1947 (rhombus), Velia caprai caprai Tamanini, 1947 (square), Velia mancinii mancinii Tamanini, 1947 (triangle), Velia saulii Tamanini, 1947 (dot) and Velia serbica Tamanini, 1951 (star) in Romania. Solid shapes represent published records while blank shapes represent records from this study.

FIGURE 5. Boxplots representing the altitudinal ranges of Veliidae in Romania.