Sunday 19 January 2014

N. 25: G. Platia & M. Marini

G. it. Ent., 5 (25): 31-47
August 31, 1990

Gli Elateridi (Coleoptera)
della collezione Andrea Fiori,
conservati nel Museo di Zoologia dell'Università di Bologna

di

GIUSEPPE PLATIA & MARIO MARINI

Abstract - The Click-beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) of the Fiori Collection in the Museum of Zoology of the Bologna University - The click-beetles collection of A. Fiori was reviewed. All the 222 species and 1570 specimens are Palaearctic, except two from the Ethiopian region [Lanelater pubescens (Cand.) and Agrypnus foedus (Cand.)]. The genera are assigned to subfamilies following Stibick (1979) and the species in each genus listed in alphabetical order, giving the number of specimens, the original classification (names assigned to chromatic varieties excluded) and collecting data. Megathous fiorii, from France, without a more definite locality, is described as a new species. The new taxon is extraordinarily similar to Neopristilophus depressus (Germ.) (Ctenicerini), as it had been previously classified in the collection. It can be distinguished firstly by the full carina of frons (Denticollini), afterwards, by its shorter, slightly serrated antennae and the different lengths of prothorax and elytra. In the Megathous genus, the new species is related by the serrated antennae from the fourth segment to M. pici (Buyss.) and M. rifensis (Cobos). Furthermore, 1) Agriotes infuscatus Desb., Eanus guttatus (Germ.), Cardiophorus melampus (Ill.), not included by Leseigneur (1972) in the Faune de France, are indeed new to that country: Buysson (1905) mentioned Eanus guttatus (Germ.) from the Alps; Agriotes infuscatus Desb. occurs in Piedmont near the French border. 2) Hypnoidus consobrinus (Muls. & Guill.) is listed after Leseigneur (1972) as a true species, and not as a synonym of H. rivularius (Gyll.), as stated by Stibick (1979). 3) Athous puncticollis Kiesw. is synonymyzed with A. vittatus (F.), very variable species. 4) The specimens of Ctenicera cuprea (F.) from the central Apennines were assigned by Binaghi (1940) to the subspecies transylvanica Szomb.; we have observed that the differences from C. cuprea var. aeruginosa F. are not consistent. 5) Agriotes grandini Cand., likely, is only a North African species (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), and can thus be excluded from the Italian fauna (Calabria, Sardinia), as we think it may have been mistaken for the very similar A. corsicus Cand. 6) We have considered Agriotes nitidicollis (Mill.) from Dalmatia a variety of A. ustulatus (Schall.), a very variable species in morphology and colour, and not a separate species as Franz (1967) and Gurjeva (1972-1973) did. 7) Pittonotus simoni (Stierlin), from Syria, after the examination of the type material, is considered a valid species and not a simple synonym of P. theseus (Germar); in P. simoni (Stierlin) antennae are more strongly serrated with the second and third segments similar in length and together shorter than fourth. 8) We list those female specimens of Cardiophorus having a bursa copulatrix with two subrectangular chitinized plates without a median piece [C. erichsoni Buyss., C. rufipes v. atripes Buyss., C. maurus Desb., C. hipponensis Desb. (Miss von Hayek, British Museum Natural History, in litteris)] as Cardiophorus vestigialis Er.