Anticosti Island: a hot spot for Neospondylis upiformis (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in eastern Canada?

Christian Hébert,Serge Laplante,Mario Fréchette,Luc Jobin

doi:10.3897/bdj.6.e25553

Abstract

BackgroundDuring an inventory of insect diversity on Anticosti Island in 1993, we caught unprecedented numbers of Neospondylis upiformis (Mannerheim), a longhorned beetle rarely observed in eastern North America. All specimens were caught using 12-funnel Lindgren traps baited with 95% ethanol and α-pinene. This longhorned beetle was captured again in 2007 on Anticosti with the same traps. Other than that, seven specimens of N. upiformis were caught elsewhere in Quebec between 1993 and 2015. Only 14 specimens were found in the 45 most important insect collections of the province, the most recent specimen dating back to 1964.New informationAt least 90% of the captures came from old-growth balsam fir stands of the south-central part of the island. Seasonal flight activity ranged from early June to late July, but adult captures peaked in early July. Results suggest that Anticosti Island might be a hot spot for N. upiformis in eastern North America, particularly in its south-central part where old-growth balsam fir forests still exist.

Highlights

During a general inventory of beetle diversity carried out in 1993 on Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada, we caught unprecedented numbers of Neospondylis upiformis (Mannerheim) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae, Spondylidinae), a species formerly included in the genus Spondylis Fabricius (Sama 2005), in baited Lindgren multiple-funnel traps
Neospondylis upiformis is known as a common species in western North America, but it is rare in the east (Chemsak 1996) where its distribution was known to reach only the province of Quebec (McNamara 1991; Laplante et al 1991) until the mid-2000, when four adults were collected in Newfoundland (Smith and Hurley 2005), 17 in New Brunswick (Webster et al 2012; Webster pers. comm. 2018; Sweeney pers. comm. 2018) and 12 in Nova Scotia (Majka and Ogden 2010)
We provide data on adult seasonal flight activity and update the distribution map of N. upiformis, suggesting that Anticosti Island might be a hot spot for this species in eastern North America

Summary

Background

During an inventory of insect diversity on Anticosti Island in 1993, we caught unprecedented numbers of Neospondylis upiformis (Mannerheim), a longhorned beetle rarely observed in eastern North America. All specimens were caught using 12-funnel Lindgren traps baited with 95% ethanol and α-pinene. This longhorned beetle was captured again in 2007 on Anticosti with the same traps. At least 90% of the captures came from old-growth balsam fir stands of the south-central part of the island. Results suggest that Anticosti Island might be a hot spot for N. upiformis in eastern North America, in its south-central part where oldgrowth balsam fir forests still exist. Insect collections, inventory data, Lindgren funnel traps, hot spot

Introduction

Materials and methods

Findings

Discussion