The Coleoptera of the Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada: 295 new records from Lindgren funnel traps and a checklist to species

Abstract

The Coleoptera fauna of the province of Prince Edward Island has long been one of the most poorly known jurisdictions in Canada, with fewer than half the number of species recorded in the neighbouring provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. If much of the difference in species richness was due to less intensive sampling of the province compared to other parts of Atlantic Canada it was predicted that surveys with semiochemical-baited traps would detect many previously undetected species. Lindgren funnel traps were baited with longhorn beetle pheromones and host volatiles and placed in the canopy and understory of coniferous and deciduous trees at the Valleyfield, New Harmony, Auburn, and Brookvale Demonstration Woodlots during the summers of 2018 and 2019. Two hundred and ninety-five species of Coleoptera are newly recorded from Prince Edward Island from 53 families. One of these, the Palaearctic Pityophagus ferrugineus (Linnaeus, 1760) is reported for the first time from North America and Canada. The families Lycidae, Derodontidae, Lymexylidae, Sphindidae, Cucujidae, Ripiphoridae, Salpingidae, and Nemonychidae are newly recorded for the province. A checklist of the Coleoptera of Prince Edward Island is provided.

New records of Nitidulidae (Nitidulidae, Coleoptera) species in Canada, Ontario, and Manitoba

“…The following are the locality data and collection dates of the new Nitidulidae records reported during this study in Ontario and Manitoba. All new species records are based on information in Bousquet et al (2013) , Webster et al (2016 , 2022 ), Pentinsaari et al (2019) .…”

“…The McNamara (1991) checklist of Nitidulidae recorded C. adustus present in Ontario and Quebec. Majka et al (2008) recorded C. adustus in New Brunswick, and Webster et al (2022) recorded C. adustus in Prince Edward Island. There are five records for C. adustus on the IN website that are mostly collected in eastern Ontario and near Montreal, Quebec ( Adustus 2023 ).…”

“…This included 45 species from Manitoba and 63 from Ontario. In addition, three Palaearctic species were recently recorded in Canada, the first one from New Brunswick ( Webster et al 2016 ), the second one from Prince Edward Island ( Webster et al 2022 ), and the third one from Ontario ( Pentinsaari et al 2019 ). Brunke et al (2019) suggested that the total number of Nitidulidae species in Canada is even higher.…”

“…All species are listed with their current known distribution in Canada ( Bousquet et al 2013 ; Webster et al 2016 , 2022 ), using abbreviations from the province/territory. New records for Ontario, Manitoba are indicated in bold.…”