Xylotrechus (Xylotrechus) stebbingi Gahan 1906

Xylotrechus (Xylotrechus) stebbingi Gahan, 1906 (Fig. 2: B) Material examined: Bulgaria: Pirin Mts. above the town of Sandanski, SW Lilyanovo Vill., 41°36’44.85’’N 23°18’42.90’’E, 470 m, 27 June 2019, 1 ♀, at light, O. Sivilov & B. Zlatkov leg. X. stebbingi originated from Central and South Asia and has recently been introduced in the Mediterranean region (Gahan 1906, Sama 2002). In Europe, by the end of the 20th century the species was found in Italy, Switzerland, France and Greece (Sama 2002). In the present century X. stebbingi was reported in Slovenia, Croatia (Brelih et al. 2006), Spain (Recalde & San Martín 2015) and Albania (Kovács 2015). The known localities of the species in Northern Greece (Sidirokastro and Himmaros) are only 15-20 km from the Bulgarian border (Dascălu et al. 2012), with the closer Sidirokastro being about 40 km from the species locality in Bulgaria. So, the species most probably has come to Bulgaria as a result of natural dispersal from Greece without assistance of human activity. Usually after its establishment in a new territory this species continues to expand its range (e.g. Cocquempot et al. 2012, del Peral et al. 2017). Therefore, new records in Bulgaria are quite possible. In Europe, X. stebbingi is polyphagous on deciduous trees (Sama 2002). Negative effect of X. stebbingi on the trees has been reported by Braud et al. (2002). Assessment of the impact of the species on forest habitats in Bulgaria is desirable.Published as part of Gradinarov, Denis & Sivilov, Ognyan, 2020, First records of Xylotrechus pantherinus (Savenius, 1825) and X. stebbingi Gahan, 1906 (Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae) in Bulgaria, pp. 1-4 in ZooNotes 161 on page 2, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.830144