Contribution to the knowledge of the beetle fauna (Insecta, coleoptera) of malta: New records of seven species with supporting dna barcodes

Abstract

We report the presence of seven species of Coleoptera newly found on the Maltese Islands in the central Mediterra-nean. The first species records from the Maltese Islands include: Ancylopus melanocephalus (Olivier, 1808) (Endomy-chidae), Aplidia transversa (Fabricius, 1801) (Scarabaeidae), Cercyon quisquilius (Linnaeus, 1761) (Hydrophilidae), Hyperaspis duvergeri Fürsch, 1985 (Coccinellidae), Lebia cruxminor (Linnaeus, 1758) (Carabidae), Smicronyx pau-perculus Wollaston, 1864 (Curculionidae), and Oxytelus sculptus Gravenhorst, 1806 (Staphylinidae). The morphologi-cal identification of each newly reported species was also confirmed through DNA barcoding.