The longhorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) of Ukraine: Results of two centuries of research

Abstract

The study of the longhorn beetles fauna in Ukraine has been going on for two centuries. During this time, huge collections of materials have been accumulated. These enabled a comprehensive view of the fauna of the longhorn beetles in Ukraine to be formed. However, despite this, the first complete list of the longhorn beetles of the fauna of Ukraine was compiled by Zahajkevych only in the late twentieth century. He listed 275 species. Decades later, Bartenev supplemented Zahajkevych’s list with five more species, suggesting that there are 280 species in Ukraine. In 2009, Bartenev expanded his previous list to 284 species. Recently, however, the fauna of the longhorn beetles in Ukraine has been fluctuating due to climate change. The southern species are actively expanding their range to the north, and seven new species of longhorn beetles have been identified in Ukraine over the past decade. In addition, the new synonymy is also the reason for changes in the list of the longhorn beetles in Ukraine. In particular, from Bartenev’s latest list, I removed 14 synonymous species and 5 species that have never been registered in Ukraine. In total, the list of the longhorn beetles I have revised includes 279 species from 114 genera, 44 tribes and 6 subfamilies. One of them, Batocera lineolata Chevrolat, 1852, is not naturalized in Ukraine and is known from the only record of a female reared from wooden packaging materials. The degree of study of the longhorn beetle fauna of the physiographic regions of Ukraine is very uneven. The fauna of the western, northern, eastern and extreme southern regions of Ukraine is the most fully studied. At the same time, the fauna of the central regions of Ukraine is still very poorly known. Further research on the longhorn beetles in Ukraine should be conducted in two directions: 1) completing the lists for physiographic regions and 2) monitoring fauna changes under the influence of climate change.

Keywords

• insects; history of research; fauna; check list; new records; new synonymy