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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Badania faunistyczne nad lądowymi pluskwiakami różnoskrzydłymi (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) w Polsce: rys historyczny i perspektywy [Faunistic researches on terrestrial true-bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) in Poland: a historical background and perspectives]

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This paper presents the history of research on terrestrial true-bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) in Poland, the current state of knowledge and perspectives in future faunistic studies in our country. Cimex lectularius was the first species of Heteroptera recorded from the present territory of Poland; it was listed in „Theriotropheum Silesiae” by Caspar Schwenkfeld (1603) from Silesia. In the XIXth century the number of Heteroptera species records from the present territory of Poland increased rapidly, mainly due to the faunistic studies by both, German (Weigel 1806; Schilling 1827, 1837; Gravenhorst 1836; Siebold 1839; Scholtz 1847; Schramm 1848; Assmann 1854) and Polish (Gorski 1852; Waga 1857; Nowicki 1864, 1865, 1867, 1868, 1870a, b; Łomnicki 1882; Stobiecki 1883; Kotula 1890) entomologists. Till the end of the XIXth century, 438 species of terrestrial Heteroptera have been recorded from the present territory of Poland; all those records are presented in the Fig. 1. In the first half of the twentieth century, faunistic studies on the terrestrial Heteroptera in Poland have also been conducted predominantly by German entomologists (Kuhlgatz 1901, Enderlein 1906, Stichel 1923, Laske 1928, Schmidt 1928, Gruhl 1929, Scholz 1931, Schubert 1934, Karl 1935, Engel i Hedicke 1936, Michalk 1936, Pax 1937, Lanzke i Polentz 1942), but papers by the Polish authors have also been published (Smreczyński 1906, Szulczewski 1908, Stobiecki 1915, Krasucki 1916, Tenenbaum 1921, Strawiński 1926, Ruszkowski 1933, Obarski 1938). Till 1945 the number of Heteroptera species recorded from the present territory of Poland increased to 578 with many new records from the regions not studied before (Fig. 2). In the second half of the XXth century the first keys for the identification of Polish Heteroptera (Wróblewski 1968; Cmoluchowa 1978), and the first comprehensive faunistic reviews of several true-bugs families (Lis J.A. 1990a, b) have been published what had a great impact on further development of faunistic studies in Poland. The XXth century has ended with 673 species of terrestrial Heteroptera recorded from Poland, and the number of known Polish records has doubled in comparison to the year 1945 (till that year we have about 9 800 records, whereas till the end of the XXth century – about 18 400 records: see Fig. 3 and Fig. 5). The beginning of the XXI century brings the data growth of further 11 000 records (Fig. 4) and several species recorded in our country for the first time (Fig. 6). At present, the best investigated regions are, as follows: several cities and their surroundings (Cracow, Wrocław, Bytom, Poznań, Przemyśl, Zwierzyniec, Puławy), Białowieża Primeval Forest, Ojców National Park, Pieniny Mountains, Gorce Mountains, Bukowa Góra reserve, and Bielinek on the Odra River reserve (Fig. 7). However, only 3% of the territory of Poland are very well studied, since only in 82 UTM squares (out of almost 3400) at least 100 Heteroptera species have been recorded, so far. Moreover, at least one species has been recorded in 1200 UTM squares (it is about one third of the Polish UTM squares). Although faunistic studies are very important from many points of view and are the basis for zoocenology, zoogeography, or phylogeography, their traditions in Poland are not as well established as in other European countries. Comprehensive nature of such studies, including a necessity of involving many specialists and the lack of time and resources to cover the entire country area, makes them not very popular in Poland. Therefore, the citizen science initiatives in Polish Heteroptera defined as “the collection and analysis of data by non-professional entomologists as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists” would be a great opportunity to gather more new faunistic data from our country. Moreover, the citizen science would be also very important in early detection of alien Heteroptera pest species introduced to our country.