In the years 2007-2011
S.
degrangei was found
at nine sites and in five geomorphological units in Slovakia. The occurrence in the Veľká Fatra Mountains and Hronská pahorkatina Hills is reported for the first time. All four records from the Danube river are also from sections, where it was not previously known. The presence of
S.
degrangei on localities from Malé Karpaty Mountains, Západné Tatry Mountains and the neighboring Liptovská kotlina Basin has been confirmed.
Recently
S. degrangei was found at following localities in Slovakia:
1. Belá river – Liptovský Hrádok (49.041° N, 19.716° E), 640 m a.s.l., Liptovská kotlina Basin, 16.6.2009: 1 pupa, 1 pupal exuvia, 1 empty cocoon (col. Brúderová).
2. Belá river – Dovalovo (49.049° N, 19.752° E), 680 m a.s.l., Liptovská kotlina Basin, 18.6.2007: 2 larvae, 64 pupae, 4 pupal exuviae, 1 empty cocoon.
3. Belá river – Pribylina (49.049° N, 19.752° E), Liptovská kotlina Basin, 740 m a.s.l., 14.6.2010: 30 larvae, 30 pupae.
4. Ľubochnianka stream – Ľubochňa, (49.029° N, 19.151° E), 600 m a.s.l., Veľká Fatra Mountains, 11.6.2008: 20 pupae.
5. Gidra stream – Píla (48.394° N, 17.326° E), 270 m a.s.l., Malé Karpaty Mountains, 27.5.2008: 35 pupae, 23 pupal exuviae.
6. Danube river, distributary – Bratislava, rkm 1872 (48.146° N 17.063° E), 135 m a.s.l., Podunajská rovina Plain, 17.4.2009: 3 larvae.
7. Danube river – Trávnik, rkm 1796 (47.749° N, 17.765° E), 109 m a.s.l., Podunajská rovina Plain, 10.4.2011: 5 larvae.
8. Danube river – Moča, rkm 1744 (47.758° N, 18.424° E), 102 m a.s.l., Hronská pahorkatina Hills, 3.5.2009: 2 pupae, 10.5.2009: 1 larva, 1 pupa.
9. Danube river – Mužla, rkm 1734 (47.768° N, 18.539° E), 102 m a.s.l., Hronská pahorkatina Hills, 3.5.2009: 2 pupal exuviae, 10.5.2009: 2 pupae, 3 pupal exuviae.
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S. degrangei was found in the Slovak section of the Danube river in the territory of the former Danube inland delta (Illéšová 1995, Illéšová & Stloukalová 1995), before (1992) and short after (1994) the dam in Gabčíkovo was put in operation. Later this species was not confirmed here, and was considered as being locally extinct. All four new localities where I found it in the Danube are outside of this river section – one (Bratislava) is upstream of the dam where the river still has submountain character with fast flow, the second is downstream of the dam, on the place where the river character changes towards slow lowland river (Trávnik), and finally, the last sites (Moča, Mužla) are already situated in the typical lowland section.
The new records indicate that the distribution of
S. degrangei in Slovakia is probably wider than was previously known, what may be a consequence of the relatively short period during which this univoltine species can be detected. Despite of the new localities, the distribution pattern of
S. degrangei can be still characterized as very curious – it is atypically scattered, ranging from 102 up to almost 1000 m a.s.l., and including streams and rivers of different width, ranging between 2 and 600 m (Danube). Also few other species seem to inhabit similar range of altitudes or stream sizes in Slovakia – e.g.
Prosimulium rufipes (Meigen, 1830),
Simulium argyreatum Meigen, 1838 or
Simulium variegatum Meigen, 1818. However, the occurrence of these species is significantly more frequent among localities (Jedlička et al. 2001) and they do not show the heavily fragmented pattern of
S.
degrangei distribution. In addition,
P.
rufipes is considered to be a complex of similar species
(Adler & Crosskey
2011) and such complexes of hidden species usually appear to have a wide distribution among various habitat types (Adler & McCreadie 1997). On the other hand, until now there is no other indication that
S.
degrangei could be a sibling species complex.
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Adler PH & McCreadie JW, 1997: The hidden ecology of black flies: sibling species and ecological scale.
Amer. Entomologist, 43: 153–161.
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Acta Zool. Univ. Comenianae, 40: 49–67.
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Jedlička L, Kúdela M & Stloukalová V, 2004: Key to the identification of blackfly pupae (Diptera: Simuliidae) of Central Europe.
Biologia (Bratislava), 59 (Suppl. 15): 157–178.
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VJA, 1956: Příspěvek k poznání muchniček (Simuliidae, Diptera) ČSR.
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