Jewel beetles (Coleoptera, Buprestidae) of Zhetysu Alatau (Kazakhstan)

• Main Author: Tleppaeva, Aizhan M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Distribution; fauna; host plants; jewel beetles; the mountains; Southeast Kazakhstan; Zhetysu Alatau; Sibirica
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/8327802; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8327802

Fifty-seven species and subspecies of jewel beetles (Buprestidae) from 20 genera, 11 tribes and 5 subfamilies (Julodinae, Polycestinae, Chrysochroinae, Buprestinae and Agrilinae) are recorded from Zhetysu (Dzhungar) Alatau Range. By species diversity at the subfamily level, the jewel beetles are distributed as follows: Julodinae – 1 species, Polycestinae – 5 species, Chrysochroinae - 14 species, Buprestinae – 14 species, Agrilinae – 22 species. At the genus level, Agrilus (15 species), Sphenoptera (9), Acmaeoderella (5), Anthaxia (5) and Chrysobothris (3) are the most abundant in the Zhetysu Alatau. The identified species of jewel beetles are confined to seven altitude belts and biotopes: the most populated is a shrub-steppe belt (25 species) followed by mountain-floodplain forests (14) and leaf-fir-forest belt (14), semidesert (11) and coniferous-forest (9) belts; medium-mountain mixedgrass belt (5) and subalpine meadows (2) demonstrate much poorer jewel beetle composition. Species of jewel beetles with known host plants are associated with arboreal and shrub plants from 21 families. The author expresses his deep gratitude to Mark Gabrielevich Volkovitsh (Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences, Russia) for identifying certain species and consulting, and our colleague Sergey Vladimirovich Kolov (Institute of Zoology of the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan) for preparation of map. The work was carried out with the financial support of grant No. APO9259987 of the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.