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Philippe Ponel

  • Biodiversity Journal, 7 (3): 301-310

    Redouane Matallah, Karima Abdellaoui-hassaine, Philippe Ponel & Samira Boukli-hacene
    Diversity of Ground Beetles (Coleoptera Carabidae) in the Ramsar wetland: Dayet El Ferd, Tlemcen, Algeria

    ABSTRACT
    A study on diversity of ground beetle communities (Coleoptera Carabidae) was conducted between March 2011 and February 2012 in the temporary pond: Dayet El Ferd (listed as a Ramsar site in 2004) located in a steppe area on the northwest of Algeria. The samples were collected bimonthly at 6 sampling plots and the gathered Carabidae were identified and counted. A total of 55 species belonging to 32 genera of 7 subfamilies were identified from 2893 collected ground beetles. The most species rich subfamilies were Harpalinae (35 species, 64%) and Trechinae (14 species, 25.45%), others represented by one or two species. According to the total individual numbers, Cicindelinae was the most abundant subfamily comprising 38.81% of the whole beetles, followed by 998 Harpalinae (34.49%), and 735 Trechinae (25.4%), respectively. The dominant species was Calomera lunulata (Fabricius, 1781) (1087 individuals, 37.57%) and the subdominant species was Pogonus chalceus viridanus (Dejean, 1828) (576 individuals, 19.91%).

  • Biodiversity Journal, 14 (2): 0359-0366

    Med Takieddine Iboud, Samira Boukli Hacene & Philippe Ponel
    Coleoptera Carabidae Beetles of El-Kala National Park (north-eastern Algeria)
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2023.14.2.359.366

    ABSTRACT
    The family Carabidae (Coleoptera) is one of the most diverse among beetles, but they are little studied in Algeria and, in particular, in the territory of El-Kala National Park. Therefore, a census of carabid communities with fortnightly trapping was carried out between 2018 and 2019 with the aim of analysing these populations around Lake Tonga, the first Algerian site to be classified as a Ramsar site and included in the Mediterranean Basin hotspot. These investigations have enabled us to record 1727 specimens belonging to 83 species of Carabidae. Six species are new to the Algerian entomofauna and six others are reported for the first time in North Africa.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 13 (3): 0531-0585 - MONOGRAPH

    Pietro Lo Cascio, Giovanni Altadonna & Philippe Ponel
    Diversity and distribution of beetles in a Mediterranean volcanic archipelago: an updated checklist of the Coleoptera of the Aeolian Islands (Sicily, Italy)
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2022.13.3.531.585

    ABSTRACT
    This paper provides a faunal inventory of the Coleoptera of the Aeolian Islands, including both the list of 669 species so far recorded and its update with 192 new records for the archipelago. Sericoderus brevicornis Matthews, 1890 (Corylophidae) is new for Italy; for Anthicus crinitus La Ferté-Sénectère, 1849 (Anthicidae) the second record in Italy is given; Pangus scaritides (Sturm, 1818), Tachyura curvimana (Wollaston, 1854) (Carabidae), Arthrolips convexiuscula (Motschulsky, 1849) (Corylophidae), Dignomus irroratus (Kiesenwetter, 1851) (Ptinidae), Megaloscapa punctipennis (Kraatz, 1856) (Staphylinidae), Aclees taiwanensis Kôno, 1933, Cryphalus numidicus Eichhoff, 1878 and Hypothenemus leprieuri (Perris, 1866) (Curculionidae) are new for Sicily; Migneauxia crassiuscula (Aubé, 1850) (Latridiidae) and Phloeotribus cristatus (Fauvel, 1889) (Curculionidae) are confirmed for this region. For 193 species new distributional data are also given; among these latter, some concern the narrow endemics Firminus massai Arnone, Lo Cascio et Grita, 2014 (Scarabaeidae), Catomus aeolicus Ponel, Lo Cascio et Soldati, 2020, Leptoderis zelmerloewae Ferrer, 2015, Nalassus pastai Aliquò, Leo et Lo Cascio, 2006 (Tenebrionidae) and Pseudomeira aeolica Bellò, Pesarini et Pierotti, 1997 (Curculionidae). The inventory highlights an increasing abundance of alien species, some of which have only recently been reported at national or regional scale, that evidently spread rapidly even in isolated environments such as an archipelago. Some biogeographical considerations on the beetle fauna of these islands are given in the discussion.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 11 (3): 781-792

    Philippe Ponel, Morteza Djamali, Patrice Bordat, Manfred Jäch, Denis Keith, Hamid Lahijani, Philippe Magnien, Armand Matocq, Abdolmajid Naderi Beni, Giuseppe Platia & Hamed Pourkhorsandi
    On the footsteps of Théodore Monod: biogeographical and ecological implications of an insect assemblage from the hottest spot on earth (in central Lut Desert, SE Iran)
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2020.11.3.781.792

    ABSTRACT
    We present the entomological results of a geological and biological exploration in the Lut desert, performed in 2014 by the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences (INIOAS) and the University of Tehran. Five localities were sampled, including the one considered as the the hottest spot on Earth. They yielded 15 insect taxa belonging to Blattodea, Orthoptera, Coleoptera, Heteroptera, suggesting that in spite of being originally described as “abiotic” or “aphytic”, the Lut desert shelters a diverse insect fauna with some remarkable elements such as the endemic desert cockroache Leiopteroblatta monodi. Comparison with results obtained by Franco-Iranian expeditions in the sixties and seventies reveals several taxa in common, but also striking differences in the composition of the insect assemblages, suggesting that the insect fauna in the Lut desert is potentially much more diverse than previously expected.