Israel Insect World

Location: Coastal sends (Rishon-Le-Zion sends)

Size: ~15mm

Date: November 2008
Found under a shalter

Hi Amir,

Sadly Carabidae are very difficult (or impossible) to ID by photos as you know. Also, its not a family I know very well besides the more spread and easy sps. I will post it to Thorsten and Jorn from Germany in hope they could tell something about this specimen.

Hi,

to me it looks like a Harpalus sp.

Thank you Sebastian and wecome abroad.

Thanks,

very kind.

my first impression was Harpalus flavescens.

a species which is an extreme thermophil sp. specialized in open, nearly vegetation-free sandy habitats.

But i don´t know if it´s range go´s down to israel.

Well according to the old checklist it is absent from this area BUT the checklist is old and have a lot of errors (many missing species and on the other side species that are not present at all in Israel do appear on the list). Thorsten Assmann (you probably know him by name?) is working on the local Carabidae fauna at the moment and I assume that he will publish eventually a new and updated list.  Several publications already came up (If you are interested I can send you what I have).

hey,

sorry for the delay. of course i know thorsten assmann.

i would really appreciate it, if you could send me som material.

i´m special interested in carabids, it is the group i´m working with here in germany.

greetings

here is a link to a good gallery site. realy good pics of a lot of coleoptera and a gallery of true bugs

http://koleopterologie.de/gallery/index.html

Thank you Kevin and welcome to the forum.

I will check at the national collection if this specie is present in

Israel.

Great, Thank you for the info! I want to buy Vol.III of the catalog, its too expensive but for Scarabids lover I just have too..

Kevin, I recon you are more a Carabidae person. I still look for the Carabus galileus, hope to have some luck this year. I wish to make a photo of a living adult..

yes, it is very rare and not  a single specimen was seen or collected at least for 15 years. In Lebanon it is less rare but sadly I can't go there. I will search for it on Mt.Hermon this year but  it will not be the first time I do it. It is very impressive specie and in case I manage to find it I will bring it alive in hope of breeding. However as I said, even a good shot of this specie will make me very happy for a long time.

Specimens also were collected on Upper Galilee but in the last 2 years students are placing pitfall traps and no specimens was collected. I hope it is not extincted from this area yet.