New data on the ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) from Kosovo

: New records of ground beetle collected from 29 localities in Kosovo are presented. Collection of the material was carried out in the period 2018–2019. Altogether, 69 species and subspecies of ground beetles are identified. Twenty one species and four genera are recorded for the first time for the fauna of Kosovo. In addition, five species and two genera are first reported from Kosovo with first detailed records. Importance of premeditated efforts for collecting material in less investigated areas in the Western Balkans is also evidenced by finding of a great total of species that represent second records for Kosovo.


Introduction
The ground beetle fauna of the Balkan Peninsula numbers 1632 species (B. Guéorguiev, unpublished data). Relatively well investigated and catalogued are the faunas in the central, east and south part of the Peninsula, namely those of Bulgaria (Hieke & Wrase, 1988;Guéorguiev & Guéorguiev, 1995), Serbia (Ćurčić et al., 2007), Albania (Guéorguiev, 2007), Greece , North Macedonia (Hristovski & Guéorguiev, 2015) and European Turkey (Kostova & Guéorguiev, 2016). In spite of the fauna of the Western Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo) is catalogued and with taxonomic composition well-known (Löbl & Löbl, 2017), particular areas in the region remain less investigated than others mostly for the lack of reliable fresh data.
First information about carabids from the region of Kosovo was provided by Apfelbeck (1904) who enlisted 43 species from environs of Prizren, considering the current nomenclature of the Palaearctic representatives of the family (Löbl & Löbl, 2017). The Hungarian Ernő Csiki (Csiki, 1940) is that who so far made the most important contribution to the fauna of Kosovo.
This author gave data for 105 species and two subspecies from the region. In the beginning of the XXI century all the available information on the carabids from Kosovo has been summarised in the work of Ćurčić et al. (2007), which is a sound basis for further research of the regional fauna. Not long ago, Guéorguiev (2011) added first data for 14 species and subspecies ground beetles for the area investigated.
In consequence of deliberate efforts for collecting new information for projects on the species for Red List for Kosovo and endemic terrestrial plants and animals in the Western Balkans, new data about ground beetles from Kosovo were collected in the years of 2018 and 2019. Thus, the aim of the present report is to present the result of the identifications of the collected samples and to make them public.

Materials and methods
The material of ground beetles was collected by hand and pitfall traps with vinegar in the period 2018-2019 at the following habitats: forests, alpine and subalpine pastures and meadows, open places, habitats at riverbanks and around streams as well as semi-natural and ruderal habitats in suburban areas. Most samples were collected at altitudes between 1000 and 2500 m a.s.l. at western and southern border of Kosovo on mountains of huge massifs of Bjeshket e nemuna/ Prokletĳe and Malet e Sharrit/Šar Planina, with the exception of lowland localities in central Kosovo near the villages and towns of Deçan/Dečani, Ponorc/ Ponorac, Kabash i Hasit/Kabaš Has, Ponorc/Ponorac and Nerodime e Epërme/Gornje Nerodimlje (Fig. 1).
The whole material was collected by the second author and is currently kept in his private collection. The following list presents the sampled sites with habitats and sampling dates, and their abbreviations used further in the text. The following abbreviations are also used: ** -new taxon for the fauna of Kosovo; * -first detailed record(s) for the fauna of Kosovo; ex -individual(s). The map was generated through the online tool SimpleMappr (Shorthouse, 2010).
Bembidion (Ocyturanes) balcanicus is distributed on the Balkan Peninsula, Italy and Romania (Marggi et al. 2017). The last source contains the only indication for Kosovo that we know, but it lacks precise locality and other particular data. Therefore, the finding at Piribeg is the first detailed record for the region. The species is rare and ordinary found above 1500 m a.s.l. (Guéorguiev & Guéorguiev 1995;Guéorguiev 1998).
Calathus (Calathus) distinguendus is a common species that can be distinguished from its close congener C. fuscipes, with which it is often mixed, by the short metepisterna, not longer than wide (Arndt, 2011). The former species predominates in the mountains whereas the latter prefers more xeric places of lower altitudes. Recently, C. distinguendus was indicated for Kosovo without precise locality and particularised data (Hovorka, 2017b). Due to our work the species is here identified from four localities so its presence in the region is confirmed.
Trechus subnotatus ljubotensis has been taxonomically treated by Jeannel (1927). The author cited it from "Serbie, Macédoine : mont Ljubeten, dans la chaîne du Schâr Dagh…Ce Trechus se prend suelement au-dessus de 1.500 m. d'altitude" [Serbia, Macedonia: Mount Ljubeten, in the Schar Dagh Range… This Trechus species is only taken above 1500 m altitude]. This geographic indication encloses the whole upper part of the Šar Planina Mountains today situated in the border territories of Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Notwithstanding, no precise locality for this subspecies from Kosovo was known until now (see also Curcic et al., 2007). Accordingly, the locality near Prevalac represents first detailed datum for this local endemic from Kosovo.
Synuchus vivalis and Amara apricaria are further two species that have been cited without precise localities for Kosovo (Hovorka, 2017c;Hieke, 2017). It seem that all such "first" indications for Kosovo in the updated issue of the Palaearctic catalogue of the ground beetles (Löbl & Löbl 2017) reflect real material in collections which in view of the of the specificities of the catalogue could not been "properly" cited. The last two aforementioned taxa are as well confirmed for the fauna of the region.