Distribution model and habitat characteristics of Morimus asper funereus Mulsant, 1863 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Bulgaria

Abstract

Morimus asper funereus is a protected longhorn beetle species of community interest and conservation importance. It is included in Annex II of the Habitats Directive (as M. funereus) and protected under the Bulgarian Biodiversity Act. Although this saproxylic beetle is widespread in old-growth forests or well-structured woodlands in Central and Southeast Europe, its populations are currently threatened by forest practices, such as the removal of wood (branches and logs) (Hardersen et al. 2017). The species is with limited dispersal ability (due to lack of wings) and is very likely to possess very isolated and localized populations. In addition, M. asper funereus is of considerable interest from a taxonomic point of view with unclear taxonomic status for as much as Morimus asper is a morphologically highly variable species. At present, at least three species/subspecies of the genus Morimus are known from the territory of Bulgaria - Morimus asper, M. orientalis and M. vercundus bulgaricus (Danilevsky et al. 2016). Although, it is considered M. asper to be met almost everywhere in Bulgaria, its distribution is still not sufficiently known. We started a systematic and more intensive study on the species distribution in 2012 with the mapping of NATURA 2000 sites. Until the present study 54 localities from the literature had been known, after 562 new records have been added. The available information is organised in a database incorporated into the platform “SmartBirds Pro” - https://smartbirds.org (Popgeorgiev et al. 2015), part of which gives the possibility for registration of protected beetle species. In addition, the platform provides free access to all data (type, location, coordinates, date, observer). Here we present all available data for the species records, and its potential distribution and habitat preference for the territory of Bulgaria via deductive model, using the possibilities of GIS and MAXENT (Fourcade et al. 2014).