NEW RECORD OF NEVRORTHIDAE (NEUROPTERA; NEUROPTERIDA) FROM SERBIA

Abstract

Nevrorthidae is an old and peculiar family of Neuroptera considered as “living fossil” withimmanent phylogenetic importance. Unlike most other neuropteran families, the nevrorthids haveaquatic larvae, which prefer clean mountain rivulets. They also pupate under water, and adults couldbe found in the vegetation along these rivulets. Four genera with highly disjunct distribution arepresent. The European genus, Nevrorthus Costa, 1863 has four (or five) vicariant species, and it isconsidered as Mediterranean faunistical element. The species Nevrorthus apatelios H. Aspock, U.Aspock & Holzel, 1977 has the widest distribution and it is regarded as balkanopontomediterraneanelement. In Serbia, including Kosovo and Metohia there were only a few reported findings ofnevrorthids, namely N. apatelios, and the most recent was back from 1986. During our research on theslopes of the Stara Planina Mountain, near the city of Pirot (southeastern Serbia), one nevrorthidlarvae was found in the August 20, 2013 in the Dojkinci River. Due to lack of available taxonomickeys for larval nevrorthids, this specimen could not be identified to lower taxonomic level. Bearing inmind biogeography of this group and genus, it could be reasonable to assume that found larvalspecimen belongs to species N. apatelios. Nevertheless, this finding represents, beside a new localityof this rare taxon, also the only recent (XXI century) report regarding its presence in Serbia.Key words: Nevrorthidae, new locality, recent findings, Dojkinci River, Serbia