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__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE SPIDER & DEATH-WATCH BEETLES (COL., PTINIDAE) OF THÁSOS
Xyletinus laticollis (c) Oskar Gran The Ptinidae now incorporate beetles that were formerly recognised as a separate Family, the Anobiidae, and together they include several species that are regarded as notorious pests of timber and dried food products. However, the majority of species occur in natural habitats where they develop in decaying wood and fungal fruiting bodies or as scavengers in birds' nests or accumulations of plant debris. larvae of the wood-borers can take up to four years to reach adulthood depending on the condition of the wood they inhabit. The adults are generally small to medium-sized beetles (up to 7 mm) with long antennae and the head is concealed from above beneath the enlarged pronotum. Most species are a shade of brown or black but several of the Ptininae are attractively marked with patches of white or gold scales. A comprehensive review of the Ptinidae of Greece (Zahradnik 2015) reports that 154 species have been recorded, but no records from Thásos are included. Nor does Karnozickij (1959) include any Anobiidae or Ptinidae in his list of beetle species recorded during the Bulgarian surveys of the 1940s. The only previous record I am aware of is of Metholcus phoenicis collected by Brian Levey at Pefkari on 26 July 1982. My casual recording has added a further ten or eleven species to the island list, including Dignomus carinatus which is newly recorded for Greece. Previous records of this species are from western Europe in Spain and Italy. I recorded three specimens from olive groves on the outskirts of Thassos Town in May 1997. My records of Xyletinus (Xyletinus) cylindricus, collected from olive groves at Aliki and Thassos Town in May 1997, pre-date the records from Crete in May 2013 that were reported as the first occurrence of this eastern European species (otherwise known from Cyprus and Turkey) in Greece (Zahradnik 2016). A female specimen of Ptinus (Bruchoptinus) cf. ivanensis, known only from the northern Balkans in Europe (Zahradnik 2016), collected in ancient plane woodland on the mountain slopes above Thassos Town on 25 May 2003, potentially represents another addition to the Greek fauna, although male specimens are required to confirm the identification. Stored product pests tend to be cosmopolitan in distribution and hence are covered by many identification keys. For other species, a starting point is the identification guide to central European ptinids by Petr Zahradnik (2013). This has keys in both English and Czech, with illustrative plates, and covers many species that will also occur in Greece. For the Thásos material I have also used Bellés (1996) review of Dignomus, which is in Spanish; Kofler (1969) on Xyletinus (in German) which includes illustrations of the characteristic aedeagal strap; Toskina (2002) with keys to Ernobius and Xestobium (= Hyperisus); and Toskina (2015) with comprehensive keys to Stagetus. Assistance with identification was kindly provided by Michael Eifler.
CHECKLIST
Ochina (Cittobium) ptinoides (Marsham,
1802) *
Unconfirmed records: Ptinus (Bruchoptinus) cf. ivanensis (Reitter, 1902)
REFERENCES
Bellés, X. 1996. El género Dignomus Wollaston (Coleoptera, Ptinidae). Boll. Soco Hist. Nat. Balears, 39: 209-228. Karnozickij, N. 1959. Materialien zur Koleopteren-Fauna der Agäischen Küste und Insel Thasos. Izv. zool. Inst. Sof., 8: 237-253. Kofler, A. 1969. Zur Systematik und Verbreitung europäischer Xyletinus-Arten (Col., Anobiidae). Mitt. Abt. Zool. Bot. Landesmuseum "Joanneum", 35: 61-74. Toskina, I.N. 2002. Some new palaearctic species of wood-borers from subfamily Ernobiinae (Coleoptera: Anobiidae). Russian Entomol. J., 11: 387–400. Toskina, I.N. 2015. Key to Palaearctic species of the genus Stagetus (Coleoptera, Ptinidae, Dorcatominae). Vestnik zoologii, 49: 13-24. Zahradnik, P. 2013. Beetles of the Family Ptinidae of Central Europe. Zoological Keys. Academia, Prague. Zahradnik, P. 2015. Ptinidae of Greece (Coleoptera: Bostrichoidea) : a commented checklist with descriptions of new species. Folia Heyrovskyana. Serie A., 23: 151-200 Zahradnik, P. 2016. A checklist of Ptinidae (Coleoptera: Bostrichoidea) of the Balkan Penisula. Folia Heyrovskyana. Series A., 24: 91-140
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