Carabus hungaricus explained

Distribution

Carabus hungaricus is a beetle species native to the Palearctic. The European distribution of Carabus hungaricus is disjunctive – three major distribution areas can be distinguished: A) Ukrainian and Russian steppes, B) Bulgaria (small isolated area), and C) the Carpathian Basin. In its whole distribution area, the habitats where this species occurs are fragmented, and as a result often isolated. In Europe, it is found in Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, central and southern Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. It is a typical steppe species, inhabits sandy grasslands and dolomitic grasslands. The majority of its populations inhabit calcareous sandy grasslands from the Deliblat (Serbia: Deliblatska Peščara) throughout the Banat (Serbia, Romania) and sandy areas in Hungary along the Danube River all the way to Vienna (Austria) and South Moravia (Czech Republic). Numerous populations occur on acidic types of sand grasslands in the Nyírség area, near the city of Debrecen (Hungary). A classical collecting place for this beetle was in the dolomitic grasslands of Buda Mountains, near Budapest the capital city of Hungary.

Taxonomic status

The type locality “Hungaria” in Johan Christian Fabricius’ description from 1792 refers most likely to the Buda Mountains, which was undoubtedly a place frequently visited by collectors and naturalists of that time. The type specimen is in that part of Fabricius' collection that is at the Zoological Museum of Kiel University. In the Pannonian Region, two taxa have been described besides the nominotypic subspecies: hungaricus viennensis Kraatz, 1877, living in the Vienna Basin (Austria) and in South Moravia (Czech Republic), and frivaldskyanus Breuning, 1933 occurring in the Banat Region (Romania, Serbia). Many authors (Freude 1976; Turin et al. 2003) question the subspecies rank of both forementioned taxa.

Nature conservation status

In the EU it is listed in the Habitats Directive and it is a characteristic species of the Pannonian biogeographic region. In its whole distribution area Carabus hungaricus is endangered, in some countries almost extinct or critically endangered (Austria, Müller-Motzfeld 2004; Moldova, Neculiseanu et al. 1999 https://web.archive.org/web/20120107034851/http://www.salvaeco.org/insecte/page/carabus_pachistus_hungaricus.php: critically endangered). The populations in Czech Republic and Slovakia are local (Turin et al. 2003). In Hungary Carabus hungaricus can be found in many places, but the habitat of this species is extremely fragmented. The further fragmentation of its habitat would cause a decrease in C. hungaricus population size. Carabus hungaricus is listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation (Ivanenko 1999) and in the Ukrainian Red Book (Serbaka 1994).

Literature

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