https://aes.bio.bg.ac.rs/index.php/aes Acta Entomologica Serbica is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering entomology published by the Entomological Society of Serbia. It publishes mainly original research papers. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SERBIA en-US Acta Entomologica Serbica 0354-9410 <p><strong>Copyright:</strong>&nbsp;© 2019 The ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SERBIA Staff. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the&nbsp;<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution License</a>, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.</p> https://aes.bio.bg.ac.rs/index.php/aes/article/view/434 <p>Here we report the first verified record of the huge violet ground beetle <em>Carabus</em> (<em>Procerus</em>) <em>scabrosus</em> Olivier, 1790, one of Europe’s largest insects, from Serbia. A single adult male was collected in 2015 along the Nišava River near the village of Gradinje, close to the Bulgarian border. This finding represents an important faunistic contribution to the knowledge of Serbian entomofauna and provides evidence of a notable westward range expansion within the Balkans, where the species had previously been recorded only in Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. Recent observations on citizen science platforms from areas (Dimitrovgrad and Pirot) west of the confirmed site suggest that the species is already more widely distributed across southeastern Serbia. Potential pathways for the arrival of this new Serbian faunal element are also discussed. Finally, the study highlights the need for targeted field surveys to assess the species’ population status in Serbia and to consider its conservation under national legislation.</p> Nikola Vesović Srećko Ćurčić Katarina Stojanović Boris Novaković ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 2026-04-14 2026-04-14 31 1 10.5281/zenodo.19455351 https://aes.bio.bg.ac.rs/index.php/aes/article/view/426 <p><em>Stethorus</em> (<em>Stethorus</em>) <em>pusillus</em> (Herbst, 1797) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), one of the most effective biocontrol agents against harmful mites in horticultural crops, was recorded for the first time in Sremska Mitrovica, northern Serbia, in August 2022. Molecular analyses confirmed the morphological identification. This Holarctic species primarily preys on mites on many cultivated plants. While the specimens in this study were found on peach (<em>Prunus persica</em> L.) leaves, the presence of mites was not documented at the time of sampling.</p> Ivana Jovičić Slavica Marinković ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 2026-04-14 2026-04-14 31 1 10.5281/zenodo.19455186