Mimocolliuris Liebke, 1933

Anichtchenko, Alexander & Sciaky, Riccardo, 2024, Contribution to the knowledge of the Philippines species of the tribe Odacanthini Laporte, 1834 (Coleoptera: Carabidae), Zootaxa 5493 (4), pp. 328-344 : 333

Genus Mimocolliuris Liebke, 1933

Type species: Ophionea chaudoiri Boheman, 1858 by original designation.

A genus with relatively low diversity, containing 17 species of rather uniform morphology. Zhao and Tian (2010), Baehr (2016), and more recently Anagha et al. (2024) have proposed keys to determine the species in this group, all of them, at least partly, inadequate. Zhao and Tian (2010) provide a vast distribution of M. pilifera ( Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India), without justifying it; Baehr (2016) mentions the characters of the same species on the basis of the original description, but without examining ant specimen. Eventually, Anagha et al. (2024) combined the two preceding keys without providing new data, but only repeated the distribution of M. pilifera given by Zhao and Tian (2010), with no more evidence or new material.

Mimocolliuris insulana Habu, 1979 is the type species of the subgenus Paramimocolliuris Habu, 1979 , and is characterized by the occurrence of two supernumerary setae on the head; its known distribution includes Japan, China and Taiwan. The only other species belonging to this subgenus is C. sinuatiphallus Zhao & Tian, 2011 from China (Guangdong). This single character seems to us to be insufficient for a subgeneric separation. Therefore, in our opinion both Paramimocolliuris and Essora Liebke, 1933 (another low diversity subgenus characterized by very subtle diagnostic features) should be synonymized with Mimocolliuris s. str., because all their other characters fit well with those of the nominotypical subgenus. Additionally, Terada and Wu (2014) give some interesting observations on the extreme affinity of some species of Mimocolliuris to the known species of Paramimocolliuris . To finalize their taxonomic placement additional material is required.