Orthomus aubryi Jeanne, 1974

Serrano, J., 2021, The genus Orthomus Chaudoir, 1838 in the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco, Russian Entomological Journal 30 (4), pp. 430-447 : 435

Orthomus aubryi Jeanne, 1974

Figs 19–22.

Body length 8.5–10.0 mm. Dorsum dark piceous, appendages reddish. Antennomeres pubescent from apical third of antennomere 3 to 11, reaching the basis of elytra. Eye convex with long oblique tempora.

Pronotum with anterior angle moderately projecting forward, anterior basis almost regularly curved; maximum width before middle (Fig. 19), from here side is slightly arcuate and narrowed toward the obtuse posterior angle, that has a small protruding tooth. Basal foveae finely punctured, the internal deep, linear or curved, the external moderately impressed or almost faint.

Elytra relatively long (L/ W 3.41), almost parallel, humeral tooth small or almost absent, striae smooth, intervals moderately convex, parascutellar stria somewhat short, distal dorsal pore adjoining stria 2.

Episternae and first ventrites moderately punctured. Metepisternae as long as wide in the anterior margin (L/A 1.05). Male mesotibia slightly dilated apically, metatibia distally curved and with traces of crenulation in the distal inner side.

Apical shaft of median lobe of aedeagus elongate, somewhat more narrowed to the left (Fig. 20); on lateral view the median lobe of aedeagus is almost straight, the apex slightly curved upward (Fig. 21); membranous area (ostium) prolonged toward basis. The spermatheca (Fig. 22) show a similar shape to that described for O. hispanicus but the duct is longer. Differences in the length of the spermathecal duct led Ortuño [1996] to place O. aubryi near the O. planidorsis group. As O. aubryi might enter in contact with O. hispanicus and O. perezii in the west (Basque Mts., north Sistema Ibérico), and with O. planidorsis in the east (Central Pyrenees), the geographic distribution doesn’t help in solving the affinities of the species. Molecular markers are needed to seed light into this question. Basque Mountains, Northern Sistema Ibérico (Moncayo Peak), central and western Pyrenees.

Groups of species with metepisterna longer that wider and narrowed posteriorly

Iberian taxa: Group of Orthomus barbarus

This group is made up by O. barbarus , O. velocissimus , O. formenterrae , and O. penibeticus . Males of this group show a distally dilated mesotibia and a metatibia variably crenulate in the distal half. The female genitalia show a long spermathecal duct followed by a long spermatheca [ Ortuño, 1996; Pupier, Coulon, 2013]. Male genitalia are rather variable as the apical shaft of the median lobe of the aedeagus is triangular in some taxa, with rounded or acute tip, whereas it is truncate, with or without a tooth at tip. Taxa of this group are found below a hypothetical line that runs from the southwest of Iberia (Algarve and western Andalusia) to the eastern Pyrenees and south France, and also occupies the southernmost archipelago of the Balearic Islands, the Pitiusas (Ibiza and Formentera).