Cantharis (Cyrtomoptila) pygmaea Ménétriés, 1832

Kazantsev, S. V., 2022, On the status of some of the Cantharis Linnaeus, 1758 species described in the first half of the 19 th century by Ménétriés, Gebler and Fischer von Waldheim (Coleoptera: Cantharidae), Russian Entomological Journal 31 (1), pp. 42-46 : 45

Cantharis (Cyrtomoptila) pygmaea Ménétriés, 1832 Fig. 4 .

Cantharis pygmaea Ménétriés, 1832: 162 .

= Cantharis inforticornis Pic, 1913: 187 .

= Rhagonycha beckeri Pic, 1902: 56 , syn.n.

= Telephorus edentulus Baudi di Selve, 1872: 106 , syn.n.

REMARKS. The type of Cantharis pygmaea Ménétriés, 1832 has not been found either. Its description reads as follows: ‘ Fusca , thorace submarginato, flavescenti; elytris fuscis; antennarum basi, pedibus anoque flavo-lividis; tibiis posticis infuscatis. Long. 2 li. 1/3. Larg. 1 li. Elle est très voisine de la C. fulvicollis , mais elle est deux fois plus petite, et autrement colorée. A Lenkoran’ [ Ménétriés, 1832].

This description, although brief, allows rather confident attribution of the taxon, which is in fact related and similar to C. lateralis , distinguishable by the absence of light margin on the elytra ( Fig. 4 ). Cantharis pygmaea is distributed in the steppe and semi-desert areas of southern Russia (Dagestan, Volgograd Oblast), also from Azerbaijan (‘Lenkoran’) [ Ménétriés, 1832], Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Iran to Mongolia [ Kazantsev, Brancucci, 2007; Kazantsev, 2011]. The species C. edentula (Baudi, 1872) and C. beckeri ( Pic, 1902) described, respectively, from southern Russia (‘Ross. mer.’) and Volgograd Oblast (‘Sarepta’) [Baudi a Selve, 1872; Pic, 1902], are very similar to C. lateralis as well, also differing by the uniformly black elytra. Both of them were notably introduced without being compared to C. pygmaea . Syntypes of Rhagonycha beckeri Pic, 1902 from the Museum of Natural History in Paris and the Zoological Institute in Saint-Petersburg were studied, and the taxon was transferred first from Rhagonycha to Cantharis and then to the subgenus Cyrtomoptila [ Dahlgren, 1972; Kazantsev, 2010]. The type of C. edentula has not been found yet. Nevertheless, as there seem to occur just one such cantharine in the Pre- and Transcaspian steppe and semi-desert areas, and as the three above-mentioned species apparently belong to a single taxon, Telephorus edentulus Baudi, 1872 , syn.n. and Rhagonycha beckeri Pic, 1902 , syn.n. are proposed as junior synonyms of Cantharis pygmaea Ménétriés, 1832 .

Figures

Figs 3–4. General view of Cantharis, males: 3 — C. terminata; 4 — C. pygmaea. Рис. 3–4. ОбЩий вид Cantharis, самцы: 3 — C. terminata; 4 — C. pygmaea.