Notonecta ( Notonecta ) meridionalis Poisson, 1926

Cianferoni, Fabio & Dia, Aref, 2025, Annotated catalogue and checklist of Gerromorpha, Nepomorpha, and Leptopodomorpha (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) of Lebanon, with new records, Zootaxa 5725 (1), pp. 1-54 : 31

Notonecta ( Notonecta) meridionalis Poisson, 1926

Notonecta glauca Linnaeus : Giglio-Tos (1894: 10), “[...] presso Brak-Ain Haur a 1800 m. sul Libano ” (partim). Misidentification (verified).

Material examined. Published records: “ Ain | Haur”, [1893]. [ E. Festa leg.], [ E. Giglio-Tos det.] as Notonecta glauca Lin., F. Cianferoni revid., 1 ♀, MRSN .

Survey material: Basin of Hasbani: Ebel es-Saqi, 31.X.2004, 1 ♀, MLUB ; Basin of Litani : Kab-Elias, 10.X.1991, 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, MLUB ; idem, 1 ♂, 1 ♀, CFC .

General distribution. Species with South European distribution (sensu Vigna Taglianti et al. 1999), occurring also in Maghreb (see Polhemus 1995c; Aukema et al. 2013; Aukema 2024)

Remarks. The female specimen collected by Festa and identified as N. glauca (before the description of N. meridionalis ) was identified for comparison mainly based on the pattern of the front wings and the veins of the hind wings (Cianferoni, unpublished data).

This is the first record for Lebanon.

As in several other cases at low latitudes and altitudes in south-eastern Europe and Near East, this species has been often confused with N. glauca or N. obliqua Thunberg, 1787 (e.g., Cianferoni 2011, 2019; Fent et al. 2011). The present record extends the distribution range of this species southwards in the Near East.