Abstract
Is it correct to look for a supposedly missing species by focusing research at the type locality? A species can be declared extinct because for an unusual amount of time it has not been seen again; however, in the frame of the climate change it is likely that a supposedly missing species is a lucky survivor not seen because it was not searched for in the correct environment. We used the strictly endemic Leistus punctatissimus Breit, 1914 (Coleoptera, Carabidae) as the case study for testing the latter hypothesis vs. the type locality approach. On the basis of past unsuccessful searches in the Dolomites (a mountain range in the eastern Alps, Italy) driven by the type locality approach, a study area was selected where climate change may have exerted environmental constraints on endemic species. Five pitfall traps were used in each of seven sample sites, at an average altitude of 2600 m a.s.l., within a high altitude alpine plateau covered by scarce patchy vegetation. Leistus punctatissimus was rediscovered, far from its type locality, after one hundred years since its first collection. It was part of a group of species well adapted to the extreme ecological factors of the alpine environments above the vegetation line. Following a biogeographical approach (i.e., the biogeographer’s eye rather than the collector’s eye) it was possible to find an endemic species of the alpine ecological landscape in places from where it probably had never disappeared. The supposed refugial area was a nunatak during the last glacial period, where Leistus punctatissimus found suitable habitat conditions, and from where it alternated between downward and uphill changes in its distribution range after the last glacial period, under the effect of climate change. From such a perspective, it can be concluded that the type locality may be the wrong place to look for a supposedly extinct species.
Highlights
When a species is “rediscovered” there are at least three reasons it was supposed to have disappeared (Scheffers et al 2011): i) it disappeared as a consequence of a declaration of extinction by the researcher who rediscovered it; ii) when for any of several reasons it has been unseen for an unusually lengthy period of time; or iii) when it was collected for the second time only long after the collection of the type
In the seven sample sites twelve species of ground beetles were found, mostly endemic of the Dolomites (n = 7; 58 %) and with short wings. Among these L. punctatissimus was collected for the first time after more than one hundred years since its first collection and description
The species most frequently found in the study area were Nebria germari (100% of the sampled sites), N. diaphana
Summary
When a species is “rediscovered” there are at least three reasons it was supposed to have disappeared (Scheffers et al 2011): i) it disappeared as a consequence of a declaration of extinction by the researcher who rediscovered it; ii) when for any of several reasons it has been unseen for an unusually lengthy period of time; or iii) when it was collected for the second time only long after the collection of the type. It is reasonable to suppose that the latter is the most probable explanation when dealing with relict species confined to high altitude environments. Leistus punctatissimus Breit, 1914 is an ideal case study, because it is a relict species known for more than a hundred years on the basis of a female specimen lacking the abdomen (Breit 1914) and a male specimen dating back to the same epoch but described only recently (Assmann and Heine 1993) on the basis of which more complete knowledge of its morphology was obtained. From the date of the first collection on the Rolle Pass (Italy) by Anton Otto in 1902 (Breit 1914), the presence of the species has not been confirmed despite of extensive searches by Brandmayr and Zetto Brandmayr (1988), who focussed on a large altitudinal gradient of several environments from the bottom valleys to the talus slopes at high altitudes in the area surrounding Rolle Pass. A second research expedition was made along the same gradient in the years 2007–2012 (Pizzolotto et al 2014, Pizzolotto et al 2016) with the aims of detecting faunistic variations possibly occurring after the 1988 expedition and of sampling new habitats seeking for the presence of the beetle, but again, no trace of it was found
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