Spanioneura fonscolombii (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) a new jumping plant-lice for Romania fauna

Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) is a host for several mite and insect pests, but the species of plant-parasitic psyllid Spanioneura fonscolombii has been observed in Romania for the first time in 2017. Subsequent research has shown that the species is much more spread, our data confirming its presence in western, eastern, and southern Romania. This is also the most south-eastern record of the species in Europe

Spanioneura fonscolombii (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) a new jumping plant-lice for Romania fauna

Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) is a host for several mite and insect pests, but the species of plant-parasitic psyllid Spanioneura fonscolombii has been observed in Romania for the first time in 2017. Subsequent research has shown that the species is much more spread, our data confirming its presence in western, eastern, and southern Romania. This is also the most south-eastern record of the species in Europe

Preliminary data on the diet composition and nesting behaviour of the Long‑legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) in south‑western Romania

The study of a nest of Long‑legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus was carried out using a trail camera and is one piece of a completely unknown jigsaw puzzle of diet and nesting behaviour in Romania. With a hatching success of 75%, we identified 3 hatched chicks from the 4 eggs. During the 10 days of monitoring, 34 preys brought to the nest were identified, with a peak of activity between 11:00–17:00 and a preference for the European Ground Squirrel Spermophilus citellus (61.76%). This was followed by the Domestic Pigeon Columba livia f. domestica and the Common Wood Pigeon C. palumbus (5.88%), and amphibians were represented by the European Green Toad Bufotes viridis (2.94%). There were 10 unidentified prey species (29.41%). We identified the presence of plastic and textile fibres in the nest and the risk of chick suffocation. We also improved our understanding of interspecific interactions and our observations highlighted the mutualism between the three species in the nest: Spanish Sparrow, House Sparrow and LLB. The removal of solitary trees from the agricultural landscape is a major threat in south‑western Romania, affecting the breeding population of the LLB, which, as in our case, nests on this type of support

Distribution of Onthophagus vacca and O. medius (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) in Romania

Morphological and molecular data indicate that two valid species exist in Europe within the two species complex, Onthophagus vacca and O. medius. The aim of our study is to check specimens from major museum collections and some personal collections from the country and to assign them to O. medius or O. vacca. We have examined 417 specimens belonging to the following collections: “Grigore Antipa’’ National Museum of Natural History Bucharest, Brukenthal National Museum-Natural History Museum, Department from Sibiu and the authors’ personal collections. We extracted elevation data for each specimen and we created distribution maps. The biogeographic distribution for Romania shows the ranges of O. vacca and O. medius overlap and they are found in all the country’s bioregions. Our study shows a high ecological plasticity in both species. Our data apparently indicate a preference for altitudes below 500 meters, possibly influenced by non-random sampling