Puer maculatus

The subject of this study is the owl-fly Puer maculatus (Olivier, 1789) (Neuroptera: Ascalaphidae), described as Ascalaphus maculatus from the vicinity of Avignon, in southern France (OLIVIER, 1789). Ascalaphus niger, described from Occitania, also in southern France (BORKHAUSEN, 1791), was for a long time the only widely recognized (e.g., ASPÖCK et al., 1980, 2001) synonym of P. maculatus, but Puer algericus Van der Weele, 1909 (described from Algeria) was also recently considered conspecific with P. maculatus (AISTLEITNER, 2019). According to MONSERRAT (2022), the known distribution of P. maculatus includes France (original description by OLIVIER, 1789), Spain (first record by ASPÖCK & ASPÖCK, 1987), Tunisia and Turkey (first record by AISTLEITNER, 2019 in both cases) and Israel, to which Algeria must be added if AISTLEITNER’s (2019) sy nonymy proposal is followed. Regarding Israel, an extensive literature survey failed to produce a true primary record: ASPÖCK et al. (1980, 2001) included Israel in the distribution range of the species but provided no actual records or data sources, while SZIRÁKI (1998) mentioned VAN DER WEELE (1909) when in fact this author did not mention Israel at all regarding P. maculatus. The Iberian distribution (Map 1) includes the Spanish provinces of (ordered chronologically by the first record for each): Valencia (ASPÖCK & ASPÖCK, 1987), Zaragoza (REDONDO, 1991), Teruel (HYND, 1992), Toledo (REDONDO, 1992), Huesca (GRUSTÁN, 2005), Almería (MONSERRAT et al., 2014), Cuenca (CARDO-MAESO et al., 2017), Granada and Murcia (AMARILLO et al., 2019), Ourense (REY-MUÑIZ et al., 2020), Jaén (QUESADA et al., 2022), Badajoz, Castellón, Málaga, and Salamanca (MONSERRAT, 2022). MONSERRAT et al. (2012) mapped the occurrence of P. maculatus in five provinces but apparently mistook the location of the Toledan site as belonging to the province of Cáceres, seemingly the reason for the listing of Cáceres in the Iberian distribution range compiled by MONSERRAT (2022); for this reason, we have not marked Cáceres in Map 1. In this note, we present the first Portuguese record of P. maculatus based on a specimen deposited in the collection of MHNC-UP (Museu de História Natural e da Ciência da Universidade do Porto, Portugal). Material examined PORTUGAL: x Faro district: São Brás de Alportel municipality: North from Tareja, near the Alportel stream (37.180481, -7.881128; MGRS: 29SNB9915; altitude: 239 m a.s.l.), 19/05/2024, 1 specimen, Thijs Valkenburg leg., MHNC-UP col.: MHNCUP-ART-42328; photographed by Nelson Conceição (see here) and Thijs Valkenburg (see here). Comments The addition of the genus Puer Lefèbvre, 1842 to the known Portuguese ascalaphid fauna that results from the record of P. maculatus presented herein completes the catalogue of Iberian genera documented from the country and raises the number of owl-fly species known in Portugal to seven (70% of the diversity recorded from Iberia by MONSERRAT, 2022).