Rhyncolus sculpturatus Waltl, 1839

Friedman, Ariel-Leib-Leonid, 2023, A review of the saproxylic weevil subfamily Cossoninae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Israel, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 52 (6), pp. 75-96 : 91-92

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10623606
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B7EB9DA7-7297-4C45-A454-D1BE1E9A8B92
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15793306
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03904252-5079-BE61-8B85-FAE4FE93889A
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Rhyncolus sculpturatus Waltl, 1839
status

Treatment

Rhyncolus sculpturatus Waltl, 1839 View in CoL

( Figs 11, 12, 20, 38)

Material examined: Israel: Carmel Ridge : Mt. Carmel, Technion , 3.vi.1964, J. Halperin, ex Pinus pinea , 14.iv.1966 (1 ex.); ibidem, ex Pinus pinea , 2.v.1966) 1 ex. (; Nahal Oren, 24.iv.1995, T. PavliČek & V. Chikatunov (1 ex.).

Distribution: West Palaearctic. Europe: Spain, France, Norway, Sweden; Finland, Denmark, Germany, Czechia, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Belarus, Russia; Asia: “Caucasus”, Turkey) Folwaczny 1973; HlavÁČ & Maughan 2013; Alonso-Zarazaga et al. 2023). New record for Israel.

Biology: This species occurs in mixed forests where it lives and develops in dead wood of coniferous and deciduous trees ( Folwaczny 1973). In Israel it has been reared from Pinus pinea L. ( Pinaceae ).

Comments: This is a new record for Israel, both the genus and the species. Only three specimens are available, all from the upper part of the Carmel Ridge ; two of them reared from the introduced species P. pinea , either planted or escaped from cultivation ( Danin & Fragman-Sapir 2023). The natural distribution of R. sculpturatus does not reach the East Mediterranean. Most probably R. sculpturatus is an introduced species in Israel, perhaps introduced together with its host plant.

Rhyncolus sculpturatus is the first and the only Rhyncolus species recorded so far from Israel, although one would rather expect to find the East Mediterranean Rhyncolus syriacus Desbrochers des Loges, 1892 , known from Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and Syria ( Alonso-Zarazaga et al. 2023). Additional endeavors to find it should be attempted in the Upper Galilee, northern parts of the Golan Heights and on Har Hermon, the areas comprising a significant number of the “northern” faunal elements.