First record of Sphedanolestes pulchellus (Klug, 1830) (Heteroptera: Reduviidae) in Kalecik District (Prov.Ankara, Türkiye)

Journal of the Heteroptera of Turkey 270 J.Het.Turk., 7(2), Nov 2025 (eISSN 2687-3249) First record of Sphedanolestes pulchellus (Klug, 1830) (Heteroptera: Reduviidae) in Kalecik District (Prov.Ankara, Türkiye) 1Gazi University, Institute of Science & Technology, Dep. Of Biology, Ankara, Türkiye E-mail: [email protected] ORCID ID:0000-0002-3688-5109 *This study was produced from a master's thesis. Zeynep Yaman1 ABSTRACT: Sphedanolestes pulchellus (Klug, 1830) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae), a rare species in nature, was recorded in Kalecik District (Ankara, Türkiye). This is the first record of Sphedanolestes pulchellus (Klug, 1830) from Kalecik. To cite this article: Yaman, Z., 2025, First record of Sphedanolestes pulchellus (Klug, 1830) (Heteroptera: Reduviidae) in Kalecik District (Prov.Ankara, Türkiye), J.Het.Turk., 7(2):270-272 DOI:10.5281/zenodo.17513674 To link to this article: https://www.j-ht.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/V72-A10.pdf Received: Oct 20, 2025; Revised: Nov 3, 2025; Accepted: Nov 12, 2025; Published online: Nov 30, 2025 Research Article KEYWORDS: Sphedanolestes pulchellus, first record, Kalecik district, Ankara, Türkiye The suborder Heteroptera (Hemiptera) has more than 45,000 species/subspecies worldwide (Henry, 2017). So far, approximately 33,820 species belonging to the class Insecta have been recorded in Türkiye (Tezcan, 2020). Among these, 1668 species/subspecies belong to the suborder Heteroptera (Hemiptera) (Çerçi et al., 2024). In the Palaearctic region, there are 9400 species/subspecies belonging to 1,632 genera (Aukema et al., 2013; Henry, 2017; Fent & Dursun, 2022). Based on these data, it appears that approximately 18% of the Heteroptera species found in the Palaearctic region are distributed in Türkiye. The Reduviidae family is the second largest family of Heteroptera with 930 genera and 6800 species in 23 subfamilies worldwide (Putshkov & Putshkov, 1996). In the Turkish Reduvidae fauna, 65 species, 19 genera and 6 subfamilies have been recorded so far (Çerçi et al., 2024). Journal of the Heteroptera of Turkey 271 J.Het.Turk., 7(2), Nov 2025 (eISSN 2687-3249) Members of the Reduviidae are predators on small arthropods. . They lie in wait for prey on the ground, in or under vegetation, and in flowers. Reduvids are usually seen as solitary in nature (Putshkov & Putshkov, 1996). In this study, Sphedanolestes pulchellus (Klug, 1830), belonging to the Harpactorinae, recorded from Kalecik, is a rare species with low population density. According to Aukema (2025), the distribution of S. pulchellus in the Palaearctic is Europe, North Africa and Asia. The distribution of this species in Türkiye is limited to a few provinces given below. REDUVIIDAE Latreille, 1807 HARPACTORINAE Amyot & Serville, 1843 Genus: Sphedanolestes Stal, 1867 Sphedanolestes pulchellus (Klug, 1830) Material examined: Ankara Province: Kalecik-Akkuzulu, 24.VI.2025, 1♂ (Leg. and det. Z. Yaman) Distribution in Türkiye: Adana, Ankara, Balıkesir, Bursa, Çankırı, Hatay, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kocaeli, İstanbul, Tekirdağ (Önder, 1980; Önder et al., 2006; Dursun & Salur, 2013; Küçükbasmacı & Kıyak,2015) Distribution in Palaearctic: Europe: Albania Bosnia Hercegovina Bulgaria Greece Figure 1. Specimen of Sphedanolestes pulchellus (Klug, 1830), Kalecik /Ankara-Türkiye Journal of the Heteroptera of Turkey 272 J.Het.Turk., 7(2), Nov 2025 (eISSN 2687-3249) Italy (Sardinia) Macedonia. North Africa: Algeria Egypt Morocco. Asia: Turkey Cyprus Israel Lebanon Syria Yemen (Aukema, 2025). Comments: Sphedanolestes pulchellus is a rare species with a low population density in nature. This species was previously recorded by Kıyak (1993) from Soğuksu National Park/ Kızılcahamam (Ankara Province). This study provides the second record of Sphedanolestes pulchellus from the Ankara fauna and the first from the Kalecik fauna. REFERENCES Aukema, B., Rieger, C.,Rabitsch, W., 2013, Catalogue of the Heteroptera of the Palaearctic Region. VI. Supplement. The Netherlands Entomological Society, Amsterdam Aukema, B., 2025, Catalogue of Palaearctic Heteroptera (Online database]. Available from: https://catpalhet.linnaeus.naturalis.nl/ (Accessed: 10.10.2025). Çerçi, B., Koçak, Özgür, Tezcan, S., 2024, Review of the Heteroptera (Hemiptera) fauna of Turkey: perspectives for future research. European Journal of Taxonomy, 937(1), 1-127. Dursun, A., Salur, A., 2013, Presence of Sphedanolestes sanguineus (Fabricius, 1794) in Turkey, followed by an annotated checklist of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera), Turkish Journal of Zoology, 37: 610-620. Fent, M.,Dursun, A., 2022, An up-to-date checklist of Turkish Pentatomidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) with additional records. Trakya University Journal of Natural Sciences, 23 (Special Issue: Biodiversity of Insect), 65-111. Henry, T.J. ,2017, Biodiversity of Heteroptera. In: Foottit, R.G. & Adler, P.H. (Eds.), Insect Biodiversity. Science and Society. Vol. I. 2nd Edition. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 279– 335. Kıyak, S., 1993, Uber Terrestrische Wanzenarten von Soğuksu Nationalpark. (prov. Ankara, Türkei). Priamus, Cent Ent Studies Ank 6(3/4): 131–156. Küçükbasmacı, İ., Kıyak, S., 2015, A Study on the Fauna of Heteroptera of Ilgaz Mountains (Kastamonu, Çankırı) With a New Record for Turkey. Nevşehir Bilim ve Teknoloji Dergisi Cilt 4(1) 1-33 Önder, F., 1980, A Preliminary list of urkish Reduviidae (Heteroptera). Jour.Ege Uni. Fac. Agricul. 17(1)1-20 Önder, F., Karsavuran, Tezcan, S., Fent, M., 2006, Heteroptera(Insecta) Catalogue of Turkey, 160 p. İzmir, Meta BMH. Putshkov P.V., Putshkov, V.G., 1996, Family Reduviidae.Latreille, 1807. pp. 148–265.In: Aukema B, Rieger C, editors. Catalogue of the Heteroptera of the Palaearctic Region. Amsterdam: the Netherlands Entomological Society, xiv + 361 pp. Tezcan, S., 2020, Analysis of the insect fauna of Türkiye and suggestions for future studies, Munis Entomology & Zoology, 15 (2): 690–710.