Astrit Bilalli

• Biodiversity Journal, 6 (1): 003-006

  Halil Ibrahimi, Agim Gashi, Linda Grapci-Kotori, Astrit Bilalli, Milaim Musliu & Ferdije Zhushi-Etemi
  First record of Mesophylax aspersus (Rambur, 1842) from the Republic of Kosovo (Trichoptera Limnephilidae)

  ABSTRACT
  The distribution of Mesophylax aspersus Curtis, 1834 (Trichoptera Limnephilidae) ranges from Western Europe, Mediterranean region, Madeira, Canary Islands and up to South-western Asia. According to the present knowledge it is however almost absent from South-eastern Europe. In this paper we present first record of M. aspersus from the Republic of Kosovo. This is at the same time first country record of the genus. Unlike many countries where this species is present abundantly in our case it is extremely rare. A single adult male specimen of M. aspersus was found in an ultraviolet light trap at the Blinajë Hunting Reserve on August 23rd 2013. This has been a single specimen of this species caught at this locality during a one year monthly sampling of caddisflies with UV light traps and entomological net. Another male specimen has been caught on September 24th 2014 at the same locality. Streams and rivers in all parts of Kosovo were surveyed during the period 2009-2014 for Trichoptera species and currently the Blinajë Hunting Reserve is the only locality where this species has been found. The distributional area of this species has been considerably expanded by this record. The closest country where this species has been recorded is Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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