Mihailo Vujić

University of Belgrade · Faculty of Biology

In the last few years, the allochthonous mantid species, Hierodula tenuidentata Saussure, 1869 has spread vigorously across Europe. To date, the species has been recorded in many countries in the southern and eastern parts of the continent, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia,...

The fundamental value of universal nomenclatural systems in biology is that they enable unambiguous scientific communication. However, the stability of these systems is threatened by recent discussions asking for a fairer nomenclature, raising the possibility of bulk revision processes for "inappropriate" names. It is evident that such proposals co...

The genus Ischiodon Sack, 1913 (Diptera: Syrphidae) are small to medium-sized wasp mimic hoverflies with only four species worldwide: Ischiodon aegyptius (Wiedemann, 1830), I. astales Mengual, 2018, I. feae (Bezzi, 1912), and I. scutellaris (Fabricius, 1805). In Europe, I. aegyptius and I. scutellaris occur, but only in the southern part of the con...

In this paper, we report the presence of the relict helicid gastropod species Drobacia banatica (Rossmässler, 1838) for the first time from the territory of Serbia. The species was found in the northern, lowland part of the country (Vojvodina province). The findings of this species in Serbia are important because they are located at the edge of the...

We report the first record of Pseudosuccinea columella (Say, 1817) from Serbia. This finding in the Tamiš River clarifies its presence in Serbia which was questioned in the 2021 checklist, as it was previously confused with succineid gastropods. The habitat is described in detail and its possible way of introduction is discussed.

In this paper, we provide the first data on the occurrence of the trematode Leucochloridium perturbatum Pojmanska, 1969 in Serbia. This is also the first record of the genus Leucochloridium Carus, 1835 from the country. Trematodes were found pulsating in the tentacles of the amber snail Succinea putris (Linnaeus, 1758). Collected broodsacks are des...

In this article, we report on the first findings and discuss the presence of three alien freshwater gastropods in Serbian waters, namely Potamopyrgus antipodarum (J. E. Gray, 1843), Planorbella cf. duryi (Wetherby, 1879) and Menetus dilatatus (A. Gould, 1843). Of these, only P. cf. duryi was found exclusively in a greenhouse, while the other two we...

The finding of the wharf borer, Nacerdes melanura, is the first record of this species from Serbia, as well as from the continental part of the Balkans. The species was recorded in Mirijevo, Belgrade, on June 16th, 2021, during the night.

New data and a historical overview of the distribution of the endemic European hoverfly Psarus abdominalis (Fabricius, 1794) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,and Serbia are presented. Psarus abdominalis is the hoverfly with the highest priority for protection in Europe. The species is reported for the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while r...

The Ribnica River Gorge represents a unique natural beauty and is partially protected as a natural monument under Serbian law. The meandering course of the river is adorned with numerous caves and natural springs. Several populations of endangered and protected species have found their habitat in this gorge and its cave systems, including at least...

Polyphaga plancyi Bolívar, 1883, also known as Chinese sand roach, it is a large Corydiidae species with a native distribution that includes several Chinese provinces and southern part of the Russian Far East. It is a well-known insect in traditional Chinese medicine, and the biological activity of the compounds isolated from it are actively studie...

The ring-legged earwig Euborellia annulipes (Lucas, 1847) is recorded for the first time on the territory of Serbia. The species was found in the greenhouse of Jevremovac Botanical Garden in Belgrade and represents the second allochthonous invertebrate species registered in this greenhouse, after an exotic millipede. In total, 10 specimens of ring-...

The fig bark beetle (Hypoborus ficus Erichson, 1836) was recorded under the bark and in the wood of frost-damaged top branches of fig (Ficus carica L.) in two locations in Vrčin, in the vicinity of Belgrade, as well as in the "Jevremovac" Botanical Garden in Belgrade. Numerous specimens were found, and a total of 39 adults, as well as several larva...

A review of records of hangingflies (Mecoptera: Bittacidae) in the Balkan countries is presented. While Bittacus italicus was cited for all Balkan countries in the past, with the exception of the European part of Turkey, the much rarer B. hageni was reported from Romania and Slovenia only. Here we report both on published and unpublished older reco...

This publication will, for the first time, systematically show all butterflies recorded within territory of protected area Pčinja Valley. In preparing the publication used were all data collected in a long string of years and systematized in the database Alciphron.

Genus Libelloides Schaeffer, 1766 in Serbia is represented by two species, rare Libelloides lacteus (Brullé, 1832) and common L. macaronius (Scopoli, 1763). The data presented in this study were obtained from Alciphron online database and its members. The data on the distribution of both species in Serbia are presented on maps and diagrams of the d...

The members of the genus Milesia are large, wasp-mimic, saproxylic hoverflies. In Europe, only two species occur: Milesia crabroniformis and M. semiluctifera, but their distribution is still not sufficiently known, especially in eastern Europe. In the Balkans, Serbia is the country with the best-studied hoverfly fauna, while most of the other count...

The genus Bythinella Moquin-Tandon, 1856 is represented by eight species in Serbia, four of which are stenoendemics. One of these stenoendemics is Bythinella istoka Glöer & Pešić, 2014, a species described from a small spring in Kosovo and Metohija. As stenoendemics are under higher extinction risk, particularly those inhabiting fragile freshwater...

During project field activities conducted in May 2021 in the territory of the Landscape of Outstanding Features "Dolina Pčinje" at the locality Vogance, one dead and trampled specimen of the web-spinning sawfly Caenolyda reticulata (Linnaeus, 1758) was found. The new finding is the first report of the species from Serbia, as well as from the Balkan...

Xeropicta Monterosato is a pulmonate xerophilous snail genus of the family Geomitridae. It is distributed in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea region and also in Asia Minor, Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Iran. No species of this genus was known from Serbia until now. Here, we present the first record of Xeropicta from Serbia....

The Mediterranean mantis, Iris oratoria is recorded for the first time for the fauna of Montenegro. Two female specimens were collected in Donji Štoj (Ulcinj Municipality) in dry, grassy meadow. The presence of this species is not unexpected in Montenegro, given that it is widespread in Mediterranean region and neighbouring countries (Albania and C...

Hoverflies (Syrphidae) are a large Dipteran family, distributed almost worldwide. They play very important ecological roles such as plant pollination, nutrient recycling and predation of plant pests. The members of the genus Epistrophe Walker, 1852 are medium-sized hoverflies of which about 75 species have been described in the World, and 12 of the...

During project activities conducted in the territory of the Landscape of Outstanding Features “Dolina Pčinje” in 2021, T. balkanicus was registered for the first time in Serbia. In April 2021, the authors visited the area and checked potential habitats for the presence of the host plant. In three subsequent visits, the butterfly was not registered....

During a survey conducted from 2018 to 2021, six hoverfly species were registered on the territory of Serbia for the first time: Chalcosyrphus pannonicus (Oldenberg, 1916), Chrysogaster coemiteriorum (Linnaeus, 1758), Eristalinus taeniops (Wiedemann, 1818), Melanogaster parumplicata (Loew, 1840), Merodon testaceus Sack, 1913 and Psilota atra (Fallé...

– Butterfly species Cacyreus marshalli was recorded on october 1, 2020 in the city of Niš, which represents the first record in the territory of Serbia. it is also the first allochthonous butterfly species in Serbia and its discovery brought the number of species in Serbian fauna to 200. The specimen was identified from the photograph submitted to...

An alien mantis species, Hierodula tenuidentata, has expanded its areal in Europe in the last few years. It was registered in several European countries, including some on the Balkan Peninsula. Herein are presented for the first time records of H. tenuidentata on the territory of Serbia, several from the capital city of Belgrade, and one from Novi...

During project related field survey, performed from 9th to 13th of May, 2020, in southeastern Serbia, two rare butterfly species were registered at locality izvor, at rudina planina Mt. – Melitaea ornata and Muschampia cribrellum. New records of these species and confirmation of M. ornata at locality Šaprance suggest huge potential and invite furth...

The genus Arctophila comprises large, bumblebee-like species of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae). In Europe occur three species from this genus: A. bequaerti, A. bombiforme and A. superbiens and all of them were recorded in Serbia. Species from this genus were registered only on few mountains in Serbia and are considered rare in the country. During...

During a survey conducted in March and April 2020 on the Avala Mt., near to the capital city of Serbia, Belgrade, two new hoverfly species for the fauna of Serbia were collected-Brachyopa bimaculosa and Callicera fagesii. Both species were caught on mud on the forest road in a mixed deciduous forest. These species are saproxylic and their presence...

Cheilosia herculana Brădescu, 1982 is a rare species, registered only on the Carpathians (Romania) and in the Balkans (Montenegro and North Macedonia). During a survey of hoverflies on Mt. Jadovnik, one female individual was collected by a standard sweeping net method.

Criorhina floccosa is a large, bumblebee-mimic and saproxylic hoverfly which mainly inhabits deciduous forest habitats and its larvae develop in rot-holes, wet decaying roots, but also in live trunks. The range of this species includes almost all of europe, but it had not been recorded in Croatia so far. C. floccosa was registered on the territory...

We examined 638 Lepidoptera specimens on the territories of 13 European countries in our search for parasitoids. We collected eggs, larvae and pupae. In total, 251 Lepidoptera species were identified, belonging to 169 genera from 30 families. Of the total sample, approximately one-third (32.23%) were parasitized. In 168 samples (26.42%), we identif...

In the last decade, numerous records of new true bug species in Serbia were published. Some of them were invasive alien species from other continents, but some were Mediterranean species, well known from surrounding countries. Recently, new true bugs were recorded in our country Anisops sardeus Herrich-Schäffer, 1849, Henestaris laticeps (Curtis, 1...

Flesh flies (Sarcophagidae) represent the large, cosmopolitan family of Diptera. They are important in forensic entomology, medicine and veterinary medicine. In this research we examined the diversity of flesh flies in Petnica, Serbia, in order to give a contribution to knowledge on Serbian flesh flies fauna. The males were collected and identified...

In the many years of research organized between 1977 and 2017, a total of 76 hoverfly species were collected in the protected Landscape of Outstanding Features “Vlasina” (southeastern Serbia) on six localities. Among the identified taxa there is a rare species, Cheilosia longula (Zetterstedt, 1838), which is protected in Serbia. Additionally, one p...