Distribution of Leiobunum limbatum L . Koch , 1861 ( Opiliones : Sclerosomatidae ) in Poland

Leiobunum limbatum is an expansive harvestman species of Alpine provenience connected with zone of hills and lower mountains. In the second half of 20th and the beginning of 21st century the species began its expansion to the East and North, mainly in Germany and the Czech Republic but reaching to Poland and even Sweden. The review of the new records shows that L. limbatum occurs in man-made habitats in the whole hill zone in Poland, from the Sudeten till the Bieszczady Mts. It is numerous, aggressive and competing successfully with local fauna.

reported in Luxemburg (Muller 1962), central parts of Germany (Moritz 1973, Martens 1978, Sacher 1978) and southern Sweden (Martens 1978).In later years, further expansion has been noted in southern and central Germany (Bliss 1990) as well as in the Czech Republic (e.g.Bezdććka 1996, Klimeś & Rouśar 1998, Klimeś 1999) and quite recently (Bezdććka & Bezdëckovâ 2011) in eastern Slovakia.It continues and now the species is known even from the coast of the Baltic Sea (Lübeck, Stralsund, Sagard) (Staudt 2011).The number of localities in Scandinavia also increased but they are still restricted to southern Sweden (Stol 2003(Stol , 2007)).
In Poland until quite lately only two localities were known, both at the foot of Śnieżnik Massif: Międzylesie [XR 15] and Jodłów [XR 25] (Rafalski 1985).It is worth mentioning that the specimens of Rafalski (1985) were collected in 1958, what univocally means that the species occurred in the Sudeten already in the fifties of 20th century.It was possibly an overlooked part of its natural range.Quite recently L. limbatum has been found in the nearest vicinity (may-be suburbs -no precise data!) of Szczecin (Staudt 2011).This locality is wrongerror in gridmap-number of the record (A. Schönhofer and A. Staudt, pers. comm.).In fact it is in the vicinity of Görlitz and corresponds with the localities in eastern parts of Germany, next to the Polish border: Zittau, Cottbus, Görlitz (Bliss 1990), Berlin (Martens 1978), Stralsund and Sagard (Staudt 2011).Considering its seemingly rarity L. limbatum has been counted in the Polish Red List (Staręga et al. 2002) to the category EN (endangered).This needs revision as the species violently increases its range.The present paper is a proof of that ascertainment.
L o c a l it ie s a n d m a t e r ia l If not stated otherwise all material has been collected, observed and in major part determined by the first author.The second author determined only few earliest samples.
Localities with UTM squares are given in parantheses.
Kudowa-Zdrój [WR 88], outer walls of buildings and fences, 28.information in papers dealing with Sudeten Highlands (Sanocka 1983, Sanocka & Oślizło 1986) and the man-made habitats in the Babia Góra National Park by the end of 90-ties (Sanocka 2003).The papers on harvestmen of the Pieniny Mts (Staręga 1979) and the Bieszczady Mts (Staręga 1966) do not mention L. limbatum too, but they reflect the true situation because in 70-ties (Pieniny) and 60-ties (Bieszczady) the species did not reach these mountains yet.Colonisation by L. limbatum of the whole hill and low mountains belt from the Sudeten all the way to the Bieszczady Mts indicates huge dispersion ability of the species.It is possible that some role plays here the anthropodispersion (perhaps transport of rock material, break stone or wood) but taking in consideration its great mobility and agility a good deal of its expansion must be due to autodispersion.

Fig. 5 .
Fig. 5. General area o f Leiobunum limbatum: Fig. 6.Distribution o f Leiobunum limbatum in Poland: circles white grid -distribution after Martens (1978) new localities, triangles -localities from literature, stars -new slightly changed, grey area -present range, black locality in Czech Republic, question mark -possible occurrence, dots -localities reached during expansion.broken line -hypothetical northern range in Poland.