The first survey of the beetles (Coleoptera) of the Farasan Archipelago of the southern Red Sea, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The Farasan Archipelago is a group of small coral islands and islets in the southern Red Sea, offshore of the southwestern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). These islands are internationally important as breeding sites for turtles and bird species and regionally for its threatened, rare, and endemic flora and other fauna. The beetles (Coleoptera) of the Archipelago have not been previously surveyed. This study presents the first data on the beetle fauna based on a recent survey of the Farasan Archipelago. In total, 179 beetle species (including three synanthropic species) in 145 genera and 31 coleopteran families were determined. The Carabidae are represented by 31 species, followed by the Tenebrionidae (22 species), Chrysomelidae (17 species), Scarabaeidae (13 species), and Coccinellidae (12 species). The genus Lasiocera Dejean, 1831 and the species Amblystomus villiersanus Bruneau de Miré, 1991 (Carabidae) are new for the beetle fauna of the Arabian Peninsula, and eighteen species are new country records for KSA. Sand dune habitats on the islands were inhabited by the greatest number of species in comparison with other habitats. Zoogeographically, the beetle fauna of the Archipelago was dominated by the representatives of the Saharo-Arabian and Afrotropical elements (74 spp., 41.0%). Fourteen species (7.8%) were recognized as cosmopolitan and subcosmopolitan. No species was known to be exclusively endemic to Farasan Archipelago. Eighteen species (10.1%) were endemic to Arabian Peninsula and KSA. Approximately 64.8% (116 spp.) of the archipelago beetle species is found on the KSA mainland and is most closely allied to the south and southwestern KSA regions (sharing 91 spp.). Comparisons of the beetle faunas of the Farasan and Socotra archipelagos indicate that 30 families, 70 genera, and 28 species are shared.

The subfamily Dermestinae (Coleoptera, Dermestidae) from Saudi Arabia

“…The data on the distribution of the species in the subfamily Dermestinae ( Coleoptera , Dermestidae ) in Saudi Arabia is based on three main sources. The first are the historical works of Shalaby (1961) , Mroczkowski (1979) , Mroczkowski and Ślipiński (1997) , and additionally the recent publication of Abouzied (2014) , Abdel-Dayem et al (2017 , 2020 ), Al-Shareef and Zaki (2017) , Mashaly (2017) , Elgharbawy (2018) , Mashaly et al (2019) , Al-Dakhil and Alharbi (2020) , and Al-Qahtni et al (2020) . The second source are specimens preserved in the insect collections of the King Saud University Museum of Arthropods ( KSMA ) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the Florida State Collection and Arthropods ( FSCA ), and the collection of the first author.…”

“…From the beginning of the 21 st century and during the last two decades, the forensic importance of dermestid beetles attracted the attention of many workers from Saudi Arabia (e.g., Abouzied 2014 ; Alajmi et al 2016 ; Al-Shareef and Al-Mazyad 2017 ; Al-Shareef and Zaki 2017 ; Mashaly 2017 ; Shaalan et al 2017 ; Mashaly et al 2018 , 2019 ; Al-Dakhil and Alharbi 2020 ; Al-Qahtni et al 2020 ). However, the faunistic data on Dermestinae were published as part of general surveys of insects or beetles ( Abdel-Dayem et al 2017 , 2020 ; Elgharbawy 2018 ). The systematic, faunistic, and distribution of Dermestinae in Saudi Arabia are still not well known, and few works have been published.…”

Checklist of terrestrial beetles (Arthropoda: Insecta: Coleoptera) associated with agroecosystems in North-West Morocco

“…Regional distribution: throughout Morocco, except in the high mountains (Machard, 2018). General distribution: Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Malta, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey; Middle East, Central Asia and Pakistan (Löbl and Smetana, 2003;Cosimi, 2011;Gnannèm and Boumaiza, 2017;Abdel-Dayem et al, 2020).…”