Charopus flavipes ( Paykull, 1798 )

Franzini, Gabriele, 2022, Taxonomic notes on some species of Charopus Erichson, 1840 in the Mediterranean Region (Coleoptera: Cleroidea, Melyridae, Malachiinae), Fragmenta entomologica (Frag. Entomol., Roma) 54 (1), pp. 105-118 : 115

Charopus flavipes ( Paykull, 1798)

Malachius flavipes Paykull, 1798: 274 . Type locality: Finland. Malachius graminicola Dejean,1833: 109 . Type locality: Styria [synonymy in Baudi di Selve 1872: 128].

Charopus pallipes Erichson, 1840: 120 ; Küster 1847: 64; Gaubil 1849: 118 (nec A.G. Olivier, 1790).

Charopus flavipes : Jacquelin du Val, 1857: 93; Kiesenwetter, 1863: 613; Mulsant & Rey 1867: 877; Horion, 1953: 86; Evers, 1979: 59; Mayor 2007: 442.

Notes. This Centro-European species does not pose particular taxonomic problems. It has been cited in the past for various Italian regions: Piemonte, Lombardia, Toscana, Lazio, Campania, Sardegna ( Luigioni, 1929); Basilicata ( Pasqual & Angelini, 2001), but during this study only specimens from North-East Italy have been confirmed. The writer believes that reports for other regions should be considered doubtful, as all the abundant material studied from these regions has been found to belong to either C. pallipes or C. varipes . One possible cause for misidentification may be the table in Porta (1929), that does not mention the difference in length:width ratio of pronotum, i.e. the best differential character between females of C. flavipes and the other two species. Males cannot be mistaken, as in C. flavipes the apex of elytra is not folded and the excitators have a single appendage pointing upwards.