Vol 103, No 3 (2024)

Longevity of adult males and females of mosquitoes Aedes (Ochlerotatus) communis (De Geer) and A. (O.) cantans (Meigen), emerged and reared in laboratory conditions, was estimated. Imagines were reared in groups in specially constructed containers with free access to sucrose and water, with mean environmental temperature of 21–22 °С, 50% air humidity inside containers, and natural light regimen. A separate group of A. cantans was reared from eggs (embryos), collected with fallen leaves from under snow. It was recognized that adult males of both species live shorter than their conspecific females. Longevity in A. cantans, in general, is greater than in A. communis; the statistically significant interspecific differences were revealed when survival curves of males were compared. Maximum recorded longevity was 42.5 and 74 days for adult females of A. communis and A. cantans, respectively. Adult females of A. cantans, reared from embryos under laboratory conditions at mean water temperature of 19°C, had the mean life expectancy similar to that obtained for conspecific adult females reared from larvae and pupae collected in nature (40 and 34 days, respectively). Two groups of their male counterparts had identical mean life expectancy values (15 days). The results mean that A. cantans adults are more convenient than adults of A. communis for prolonged experiments under laboratory conditions. Probably, adults of A. cantans reared from embryos are, in general, not less viable than their conspecifics hatched and developed at pre-imaginal stages in natural conditions.

An annotated list of crane flies (Tipuloidea) collected in the vicinity of Pevek City (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, northwest of Chaun Bay) was compiled based on the surveys carried out in 2011 and 2021, as well as on the collection material of the Zoological Institute RAS (St. Petersburg). The list contains 10 species of Tipulidae (120 specimens in total) and three species of Limoniidae (7 specimens), of which Tipula (Odonatisca) subarctica Alexander, 1919 and Symplecta (Symplecta) scotica (Edwards, 1938) are recorded for the first time for the Chukotka AO. The bulk of the fauna consists of the species with the Arctic/Arcto-montane ranges, some of which are restricted to the extreme northeast of Asia; one third of the species have Hypoarcto-montane ranges. The peculiar feature of the ecological composition of the fauna is the small number of hygrophilous taxa (only one species in the family Tipulidae). The Hypoarcto-montane Tipula (Vestiplex) montana excisoides Alexander, 1934 is the commonest species in the studied area. Most of the other species found around Pevek are rare there, and some are found in very small numbers, which is particularly characteristic of limoniids.

Data on the distribution, landscape and biotopical, and also trophic associations of Sitona onerosus Faust, 1890 (Curculionidae) in European Russia are reported. This Central Palaearctic steppe species is for the first time reliably recorded in the centre of the European part of the country (Voronezh Prov.) and in the eastern part of the Russian Plain (Samara and Orenburg provinces, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan). Lectotype and paralectotypes of Sitona uralensis L. Arn. are designated in the collection of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences.