Coleopteran Pests Infesting Astragalus Plants on Karacadağ Mountain with a New Species for the Turkish Fauna

Abstract

Karacadağ Mountain, the shield volcano in Southeastern Türkiye, has been a treasure of biodiversity in terms of flora and fauna that serve a diverse number of agricultural practices and forestry. The floral composition is mainly composed and represented by the shrub plant, Astragalus spp. which is under threat by insect pests. This study aims to report the coleopteran woodboring species infesting Astragalus spp. along with their density and infestation rate on different altitude levels (lowest=1400-1500 m, middle=1600-1700 m, and upper=1850-1950 m) in 2016. Laboratory incubation of the specimens yielded six woodboring species: Agapanthia coeruleipennis Frivaldszky, 1878 and Xylotrechus sieversi (Ganglbauer, 1890) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), Sphenoptera (s.str.) anthracina Jakovlev, 1887, Sphenoptera (s.str.) coracina (Steven, 1829), Sphenoptera (s.str.) tragacanthae (Klug, 1829), and Anthaxia (s.str.) truncata Abeille de Perrin, 1900 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). Among these species, S. anthracina is recorded for the first time in Turkish fauna. The infestation rate did not differ between altitudes while the number of woodborer pests per plant was highest at the highest level of altitude which did not differ between lowest and middle altitude levels.