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Journal of the Heteroptera of Turkey 7
J.Het.Turk., 5(1), May 2023 (eISSN 2687-3249)
First records of Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann,
1910 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae) and
Zelus renardii Kolenati, 1857
(Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) in Uzbekistan
Immenweide 83, D-22523 Hamburg, Germany.
E-mail: tmvdh@web.de ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4138-7160
Torsten van der Heyden
To cite this article: van der Heyden, T., 2023, First records of Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann, 1910
(Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae) and Zelus renardii Kolenati, 1857 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) in
Uzbekistan, J.Het.Turk., 5(1):7–9
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.7986515
To link to this article: https://www.j-ht.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/V51-A2.pdf
Received: Feb 4, 2023; Revised: Feb 15, 2023; Accepted: Apr 4, 2023; Published online: May 31, 2023
Short Note
ABSTRACT: The first records of Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann, 1910 (Hemiptera:
Heteroptera: Coreidae) and Zelus renardii Kolenati, 1857 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae)
for Uzbekistan are reported. Additional information on the distribution of both species, mainly
in Europe, is summarised.
KEY WORDS: Leptoglossus occidentalis, Zelus renardii, invasive species, first records,
distribution, Uzbekistan.
The western conifer seed bug Leptoglossus
occidentalis Heidemann, 1910 (Hemiptera:
Heteroptera: Coreidae) and the leafhopper
assassin bug Zelus renardii Kolenati,
1857 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae),
both species with a Nearctic origin, are
invasive in other regions of the world.
In Europe, L. occidentalis has colonised
nearly all parts of the continent (van der
Heyden, 2019), while Z. renardii can
mainly be found in the Mediterranean
Region (Kment & van der Heyden, 2022).
Journal of the Heteroptera of Turkey 8
J.Het.Turk., 5(1), May 2023 (eISSN 2687-3249)
Now, both species can be reported for
Uzbekistan in Central Asia:
On 24.10.2022, a single specimen of Z.
renardii was found in Tashkent, the
capital of Uzbekistan (Fig. 1). Photos of
the specimen were uploaded to the online
database iNaturalist by Bulat Khaydarov
(Khaydarov, 2022a). The specimen was
found on a kitchen table in a private
household. The botanical garden of
Tashkent had been visited two days
before. Thus, the specimen might have
been brought from there (Bulat Khaydarov,
pers. comm.). It is also possible that the
specimen had been introduced to Tashkent
with imported fruits, e.g. grapes from the
Mediterranean Region, as it had happened
in other cases (van der Heyden, 2021),
but no such fruits were bought by the
family of Bulat Khaydarov (pers. comm.).
On 25.11.2022, a single specimen of L.
occidentalis was found in Tashkent.
Photos of the specimen were uploaded to
the online database iNaturalist by Bulat
Khaydarov (Khaydarov, 2022b). Five
years ago, L. occidentalis was reported
from Kazakhstan (Barclay & Nikolaeva,
2018).
It seems possible that L. occidentalis
arrived in Uzbekistan from its neighbouring
country in the north.
As L. occidentalis and Z. renardii have not
been reported for Uzbekistan in scientific
publications yet, the records reported in
this note are the first ones of both
species for this country.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Bulat Khaydarov for
allowing me to use his photo of Z.
renardii to illustrate this paper and for
additional information about the findings
reported here.
REFERENCES
Barclay, M., Nikolaeva, S., 2018, Arrival in
Kazakhstan of Leptoglossus occidentalis
(Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae); a
North American invasive species expands
2,500 kilometres to the east, Klapalekiana,
54: 1-3.
Khaydarov, B., 2022a, Leafhopper Assassin
Bug (Zelus renardii). Photographs to be
found on iNaturalist [Online database].
Available from: https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/139939592. (Accessed:
04.02.2023).
Khaydarov, B., 2022b, Western Conifer Seed
Bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis). Photo-
graphs to be found on iNaturalist [Online
database]. Available from: https://
www.inaturalist.org/observations/142887564.
(Accessed: 04.02.2023).
Kment, P., van der Heyden, T., 2022, Zelus
renardii (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae):
first records from Croatia, Montenegro,
and an accidental introduction to the
Czech Republic, Heteroptera Poloniae –
Acta Faunistica, 16: 7-14.
van der Heyden, T., 2019, Summarized data
on the European distribution of Leptoglossus
occidentalis Heidemann (Heteroptera:
Coreidae: Coreinae: Anisoscelini), Revista
Chilena de Entomología, 45 (3): 499-502.
van der Heyden, T., 2021, On the recent
Northern European dispersion of Zelus
renardii Kolenati (Hemiptera: Heteroptera:
Reduviidae) via human activity, Israel
Journal of Entomology, 51: 43-46.
Journal of the Heteroptera of Turkey 9
J.Het.Turk., 5(1), May 2023 (eISSN 2687-3249)
Figure 1. Specimen of Zelus renardii Kolenati, 1857, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 24.10.2022.
(Photo: Bulat Khaydarov).
