The first record of Polyphylla olivieri (Laporte de Castelanu, 1840) (Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from Lebanon

Polyphylla (Polyphylla) olivieri (Laporte de Castelanu, 1840) is a widely distri­buted June Beetle that occurs in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Syria and Israel (Bezdek 2006). Although it would be only logical to assume that the species is present also in Lebanon, it was never actually reported from there and so Lebanon remained a blank spot in its known range of distribution. During the examination of the Melolonthini beetles deposited in the National Collection of Insects, The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Israel National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel (SMNHTAU), the author encountered two specimens accompanied with hand­written data labels that read ‘Syria Bokaah [or Bekaah, as ink is blurred]’. Bekaah is recently known as Beqaa [Becaa] Valley (in English), Wadi al-Biqaʻ (in Arabic) or el-Bohah (Lebanese dialect). It is a large valley situated east of Beirut in Lebanon between the Anti-Lebanon mountains to the east and Mount Lebanon to the west.