Nebria heeri

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Nebria heeri
Systematics
Superclass : Six-footed (Hexapoda)
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Beetle (Coleoptera)
Family : Ground beetle (Carabidae)
Genre : Cinderella ( Nebria )
Type : Nebria heeri
Scientific name
Nebria heeri
Daniel , 1903

Nebria heeri is a ground beetle species thatis endemic in the nominate form in the Swiss Northern Alps and with a subspecies in the Black Forest .

features

Nebria heeri reaches a body length of 8 to 10 millimeters. The upper side of the species is light brown to brown-black, the legs are always brownish-yellow. The antennae are long and slender in comparison with related species, they clearly reach the middle of the elytra when put back . As with all species of the subgenus Nebriola , the species has no hind wings and is unable to fly. As a result, the anterior angles of the wing covers ("shoulders") are rounded in a flat arc, without any noticeable protuberance ("shoulder bulge"). Their shape is oblong-oval, more than three times as long as the pronotum, with deep stripes with arched spaces. The throat plate is narrowed strongly sweeps rearwardly with deep, dotted Basalgruben. Typical features of bristle ( chaetotaxia ) are: base of the hind hips (the first leg link of the hind legs) with at least two bristles, the side edge of the pronotum carries two to four setae in front of the middle on each side , the sixth sternite of the abdomen in the male has two.

Examination of the male aedeagus is advisable for a reliable identification of the species . In Nebria heeri , its tip is blunt.

Taxonomy

Nebria heeri was described as a species by Daniel, but for a long time it was regarded as one of the subspecies of the Nebria cordicollis endemic in the Alps . In 2013 it was raised to the rank of species again by Alexander Szallies and Charles Huber. In most faunal works and identification tables it is still referred to as Nebria cordicollis subsp. heeri listed. In 2004, Charles Huber and Roland Molenda described a new Nebriola species from the Black Forest, the first finding of the subgenus north of the Alps, it was called Nebria praegensis . In 2017 this form was placed as a subspecies to Nebria heeri , due to the matching shape of Aedeagus .

The species belongs to the subgenus Nebriola of the widespread genus Nebria . The fewer than ten species are cold and moisture-loving and limited to the higher elevations of the mountains. They occur in the Central and Western Alps, in the Black Forest (see above) and with one species in the Pyrenees.

Ecology and diffusion

Both subspecies of Nebria heeri are endemic to a small area in the mountains. They rarely occur together with other Nebriola species, especially the subspecies of Nebria cordicollis show neighboring distribution areas with each other and compared to Nebria heeri . This is known as geographic vicariance . In some cases, however, there is a slight overlap of the distribution areas (i.e. there are also few sympatric occurrences). The distribution area of Nebria heeri heeri is in north-eastern Switzerland, in the northern Alps (north of the Rhine-Rhone furrow), from the Reuss valley in the west to Säntis in the Alpstein in the east. It partially overlaps with the occurrence of Nebria cordicollis subsp. gracilis , the main area of ​​distribution of which is adjacent to the west. Nebria heeri never occurs here at sea levels below 1500 m. Nebria heeri inhabits damp and cold habitats such as the banks of streams, shady rock walls exposed to the north, block heaps and the edges of snowfields soaked by meltwater.

Nebria heeri subsp. praegensis has so far only been found at a single location, the "Seehalde" in the nature reserve Gletscherkessel Präg in the Upper Black Forest (municipality of Todtnau ), at an altitude of 600 m. The site of the discovery is a block heap, in which the cold air flowing away creates very cool areas at the bottom of the heap in terms of local climatic conditions. The temperatures measured here were an annual mean of 2 ° C and below, while the surrounding area has an average temperature of 8 to 10 ° C. Block heaps are therefore known as the location of cold-loving species with an arctic-alpine distribution focus.

Nebria heeri is considered safe (least concern) in Switzerland, despite its limited distribution area, as its habitats are considered stable far away from human settlements.

Literature and Sources

  • M.Bänninger (1960): The Swiss species of the genus Nebria Latr. (Col. Carab.). Communications from the Swiss Entomological Society 32 (4): 337–356.
  • Gerd Müller-Motzfeld (editor): Volume 2 Adephaga 1: Carabidae (ground beetles). In: Freude, H., Harde, KW, Lohse. GA & Klausnitzer, B. (Editor): The Beetles of Central Europe. Spektrum-Verlag Heidelberg and Berlin, 2nd edition 2004. ISBN 3-8274-1551-9 . on page 43.
  • Charles Huber & Roland Molenda (2004): Nebria (Nebriola) praegensis sp. nov., a periglacial relic in the southern Black Forest / Germany, with description of the larvae (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae). Contributions to Natural History 4: 1-28.
  • Alexander Szallies & Charles Huber (2013): reassessment of Nebria (Nebriola) heeri K. Daniel, 1903 stat. nov .. Communications of the Swiss Entomological Society 86: 35–42.
  • Alexander Szallies & Stephan Brenneisen: Relic populations of endemic priority species from the Swiss Northern Alps. On behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). Final report of the field study 2012–2015. ZHAW Institute for Environment and Natural Resources, Wädenswil: 39 p.
  • Jeannine Klaiber, Florian Altermatt, Stefan Birrer, Yannick Chittaro, Frank Dziock, Yves Gonseth, René Hoess, Daniela Keller, Helen Küchler, Henryk Luka, Uwe Manzke, Andreas Müller, Manfred Alban Pfeifer, Christian Roesti, Jürg Schlegel, Karin Schneider, Peter Sonderegger, Thomas Walter, Rolf Holderegger, Ariel Bergamini: Fauna Indicativa. WSL reports 54.192 p. ( PDF )

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