Rove beetles of the subfamily Aleocharinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) from the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park

Abstract

This work is the first attempt to make up an inventory of the fauna of rove beetles in the Hutsulshchyna National Natural Park (Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast), which was created in 2002 and has an area of 32,271 hectares. The modern territory of the park has never been the object of special scientific research on the fauna of rove beetles of the Aleocharinae subfamily. As a result, information about the finds of representatives of the Aleocharinae subfamily has been obtained from the study of the largest collection of rove beetles in Ukraine, which contains both modern collections and collections of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection was formed by Marian-Aloiz Lomnitski and was further developed and replenished with collections from different parts of Ukraine and the world by several generations of Ukrainian and European entomologists. For the moment, the collection is kept in the funds of the State Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and contains more than 1,500 specimens, which belong to more than 300 species and are of great historical and scientific value. As a result of the conducted studies, 30 species belonging to 18 genera are reported for the first time for the fauna of the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park, of which 4 species (Atheta corvina (Thomson, 1856), Schistoglossa viduata (Erichson, 1837), Leptusa puellaris puellaris (C. Hampe, 1863), Silusa rubra (Erichson, 1839)) are reported for the first time for the territory of Ukraine. The species and specimens (with references, data of their distribution in Europe, as well as substrate and biotope preferences of adults) are listed. The obtained data will later on provide an opportunity to expand the understanding of the distribution of species – specifically for faunal research, as well as for biogeographic modelling.