Saprinus (Saprinus) prasinus prasinus Erichson

Penati, Fabio, 2009, An updated catalogue of the Histeridae (Coleoptera) of Sardinia, with faunistic, zoogeographical, ecological and conservation remarks *, Zootaxa 2318, pp. 197-280 : 264

Saprinus (Saprinus) prasinus prasinus Erichson

Literature data. “ Sardinia ” ( Bargagli 1871; Bertolini 1904; Porta 1926; Barajon 1966; Vienna 1980; Mazur 1984; Audisio et al. 1995; Mazur 1997, 2004; Yélamos & Lackner 2004).

Notes. E-Mediterranean species reaching the Caucasus and Iran eastwards ( Mazur 2004); it was first cited from Sardinia by Bargagli (1871), after suggestion by Baudi, and later uncritically reported by Bertolini (1904), Porta (1926), Mazur (1997, 2004) and Yélamos and Lackner (2004). On the other hand, Luigioni (1929) excluded it from the Italian fauna and listed it among the species of uncertain origin or doubtful identification, whereas Barajon (1966) recorded it as doubtful in Sardinia, as did Vienna (1980), who affirmed: “ the record ‘Sardinia’ by Bertolini gives no further information and needs confirming in my opinion ” [translated from the Italian original]. Meanwhile it was still included in the Italian checklist ( Audisio et al. 1995), before being definitively excluded by Penati and Vienna (2002, 2005, 2006a), who found no Sardinian or even Italian specimens in the collections examined by them. Being absent also in France and Spain (cf. Mazur 2004), S. prasinus was excluded from the new key to the recognition of Saprinus species of these three countries ( Penati & Vienna 2007).

During the preparatory work for the present catalogue, while examining the Baudi di Selve collection I found, much to my surprise, four specimens of S. prasinus , all correctly identified and indicated in the handwritten catalogue as coming from Sardinia! Seeing that the western limit of the distribution range of this species is Greece and that Baudi could easily have made a mistake when jotting down the origin of these specimens (no specimens in his collection carry a locality label and the locality, which is nearly always generic, is only given in the handwritten catalogue [see also comment under Phelister haemorrhous ]), I consider it wise to exclude S. prasinus from the Italian histerid fauna, at least until possible new findings demonstrate its presence in Sardinia or elsewhere in Italy.