Pullimosina (Pullimosina) meijerei

5. Pullimosina (Pullimosina) meijerei (Duda, 1918)

(Figs. 3, 4, 23–27)

Material examined. About 550 specimens (249 JJ 304 ♀♀, with 139 JJ 182 ♀♀ brachypterous, others macropterous) from Denmark, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia – localities listed by ROHÁČEK (1975a, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1995, 1999, 2009a, 2011), ROHÁČEK & BARTÁK (2001) and ROHÁČEK et al. (2005). Additional localities: CZECH REPUBLIC: BOHEMIA: Klášterec nr. Vimperk (J. Roháček leg.). MORAVIA: Hrubý Jeseník Mts. – Velká kotlina valley, Karlova Pláň – Volárenský potok, Šilheřovice – Černý les res., Moravskoslezské Beskydy Mts.– Tanečnica Mt. (J. Roháček leg.). SLOVAKIA: Velká Fatra Mts. – Rakša res., Malá Fatra Mts. – Šútovská dolina, Nízke Tatry Mts. – Donovaly 3 km E, Korytnica kúpele, Muránska planina NP – Šarkanica res.; Muránská planina NP – Muránska Huta 1 km NW, Bobačka cave, 48°46′ 49″N, 20°06′16″E, 780 m a.s.l., sifting leaves in beech forest, 11.iv.2012, 1 J with unevenly developed wings (J. Roháček leg.). HUNGARY: Kiskunsági N. P., Kunfehértó lake (J. Roháček leg.). NORWAY: SVALBARD Is. (= Spitzbergen), Colsbay, tundra, 15.vii.1983, 1 J (f. brachyptera), R. I. Zlotin leg. (both in coll. J. Roháček, Opava). Note: The record from Svalbard Is. is the northernmost distribution limit of the species.

The species was originally described as brachypterous; the macropterous form was discovered only in 1975 but the species was confused (and synonymized) by ROHÁČEK (1975b) with the closely allied P. pullula (Zetterstedt, 1847), and this mistake was disproved subsequently by ROHÁČEK (1978, 1983). Both forms are clearly separated; no intermediate forms are known (ROHÁČEK 1975b, as P. pullula). The proportion of the brachypterous (Figs. 24–27) and macropterous (Figs. 3, 23) forms somewhat varies in samples taken in different habitats (e.g. in woodland with high leaf-litter layer the brachypterous form strongly predominate) but generally the short-winged specimens are more abundant in the majority of populations. The brachypterous form has the wing not only abbreviated but also somewhat narrowed (this the only case among European Limosininae). Besides the most common type, there are several other forms with more reduced venation (see Figs. 25, 27); that with rounded external corners of dm cell is rather common. Pullimosina meijerei is a typically terricolous species living in leaf-litter and other decayed plant matter, often in deep layers of detritus (ROHÁČEK 1983).

In spring 2012 a male specimen with unevenly developed wings, thus combining the macropterous and brachypterous form (see Fig. 4), was sifted from leaf-litter in the Muránska planina NP (Slovakia, see above). This is the first time that this peculiar phenomenon has been noted in Sphaeroceridae. Formerly, single specimens having one wing normal and the other shortened were only recorded in the wing polymorphic species Stiphrosoma sabulosum (Haliday, 1837) (Anthomyzidae), both in Europe (see COLLIN 1944; STACKELBERG 1958, 1970; ROHÁČEK 1996b) and USA: Michigan (ROHÁČEK & BARBER 2005), and one specimen with ambiguous wings was also recorded in a Canadian population of Conioscinella zetterstedti Andersson, 1966 (Chloropidae) (WHEELER 1994).