Recent expansion of the assassin bug Nagusta goedelii (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) within Slovakia and Romania, with additional records from Europe and the Middle East

Abstrakt: The relatively rare assassin bug Nagusta goedelii (Kolenati, 1857) is rediscovered in Slovakia after 49 years, in Romania after 54 years, and reported from Syria and Jordan for the first time. Some additional records from Hungary and Greece (including the first records from Lesvos, Rhodos and Samos), and a chronological overview of all known Slovak and Romanian records are provided. Repeated observations of this species in Bratislava (Slovakia) between 2015–2020 suggest the presence of an established population in urbanised areas of the city, most probably as result of natural expansion. Another observations from Nitra (Slovakia) in 2020 and Piešťany (Slovakia) in 2021 indicate the probability of further extension of N. goedelii over a large part of the Danube Lowland. Here we discuss the possibility of synantropic behaviour of by this species.

Klíčová slova: Heteroptera, Reduviidae, Nagusta goedelii, faunistics, first records, rediscovery, Greece, Hungary, Jordan, Romania, Slovakia, Syria