Microvelia (Picaultia) hozari Hoberlandt, 1952

Kment, Petr & Jindra, Zdeněk, 2005, New and interesting records of true bugs (Heteroptera) from Turkey, southeastern Europe, Near and Middle East, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 45, pp. 3-16 : 7

Microvelia (Picaultia) hozari Hoberlandt, 1952

Material examined. TURKEY centr.: İÇEL (= Mersin) province, Erdemli (36°37′N 34°18′E), limestone hill above the city on the road to Karakeşti, puddle, 27.iv.2004, 1 ♀ (macropterous), I. Malenovský lgt., P. Kment det. ( PKPC).

This species was transferred from the nominotypical subgenus Microvelia Westwood, 1834 to the subgenus Picaultia Distant, 1913 by ANDERSEN & WEIR (2003). It is a poorly known species described from the southern Turkish provinces of Adana (locality Suluhan near Kozan) and Gaziantep (localities Kilis and Afrin river near Musabeyli) by HOBERLANDT (1952). ANDERSEN (1995) and ANDERSEN & WEIR (2003) listed it also from Saudi Arabia. BROWN (1953a) mentioned three females from Hejaz and Northern ’ Asir ( Saudi Arabia) but found ‘impossible to state whether they belong to the typical form or subsp. macani Brown (in press)’. In the subsequent paper, BROWN (1953b) described the subspecies M. hozari macani Brown, 1953 from Baghdad and attributed the Saudi Arabian specimens to the nominotypical subspecies. However, the species was not included in the review of Saudi Arabian Heteroptera by LINNAVUORI (1986). CARL (1989) recorded M. hozari from irrigation ditches in Baiji (environs of Tikrīt) in Iraq; these specimens might be misidentified M. (P.) macani Brown, 1953. Microvelia hozari was listed from Iraq neither by LINNAVUORI (1994) nor by ANDERSEN (1995). According to HOBERLANDT (1952), the Turkish specimens were collected ‘on small water surfaces (at the Afrin river, unfar the course proper of the river in tiny puddles formed by the hoofs of cattle) exposed to constant insolation, without special vegetation’. Our specimen was found in fields near Erdemli in a small puddle fed by a leaking irrigation pipe. Additional record from Turkey and the first one from the İçel province.