Click-beetles (coleoptera, elateridae) from two oak forests in Turkey

Abstract

Old oaks (Quercus spp.) are very species-rich in Europe and Turkey (Palm, 1959; Jansson & Coskun, 2008). The habitat has declined substantially and many species are threatened (Hannah et al., 1995; McLean & Speight, 1993; Nieto & Alexander, 2010). The reason is lack of suitable trees from wrong management or habitat conversion (Nilsson, 1997; Kirby & Watkins, 1998). This study is a part of a larger project aiming to describe the saproxylic beetle fauna on old oaks in Turkey (Novak et al., 2011; Platia et al., 2011; Sama et al., 2011; Mazur et al., 2013) and compare the results with neighbouring countries. One group of beetles often found in our studies are the Elaterids and in total about 450 species are known from Turkey. Most of the species are predators in their larval stage and in the habitat we are studying most of the species have their larval development in dead wood or in the wood mould in cavities in the trunks and branches on the old oaks. Three new species (Elathous tezcani Platia sp. nov., Melanotus balikesirensis Platia sp. nov. and Cardiophorus adiyamanensis Platia sp. nov.) from Turkey, are presently described, illustrated and compared with related species of Turkey and adjacent regions.