First Record of the Saproxylic Beetle Cossonus parallelepipedus (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Balkan Peninsula is considered to be a hotspot of beetle biodiversity. Registering occurrence of saproxylic beetles is an important first step for expanding the general knowledge about saproxylic beetles as ecologically important insect species. Cossonus parallelepipedus is a European saproxylic species distributed from Iberian Peninsula in the west to Russia in the east, and from the Mediterranean in the south to Fennoscandia in the north. The first, and until now the only find of this species for the Balkan Peninsula is from Croatia. We report the first find of C. parallelepipedus in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In April 2020, larvae, pupae and imagoes were collected, in the central part of BiH, north of Sarajevo, on Zvijezda Mt. near Vareš from decaying moist wood in the lower part of a tree trunk of European silver fir, Abies alba. We expect that this species has a wider presence, especially in mountain areas in the central part of the country. Due to the similar environment conditions for other two European Cossonus species ( C. cylindrus and C. linearis) their presence is also possible.