Anthaxia simandli, Baiocchi, Daniele, 2013

Baiocchi, Daniele, 2013, The Anthaxia (Anthaxia) manca (Linnaeus, 1767) species-group in Iran, with description of a new species and a new synonymy (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Zootaxa 3613 (5), pp. 455-481 : 456-462

The Anthaxia manca species-group in Iran

Taxonomic part. The general composition of the A. manca species-group was formerly treated by Obenberger (1917), Schaefer (1949), Richter (1945a, 1949), and more recently by Bílý (1982, 2005) who also described some new species of the group, which is now comprised of the following palaearctic species: A. brodskyi Bílý, 1982 ; A. cupressi Bílý, 2005 ; A. hackeri Frivaldszky, 1884 ; A. magnifica Bílý, 1983 ; A. manca (Linnaeus, 1767) ; A. mancatula Abeille de Perrin, 1900; A. senicula ssp. senicula (Schrank, 1789) ; A. senicula ssp. cretica Brandl, 1993; A. simandli sp. nov.; A. ulmi Bílý, 2005 .

Although no specific study of this group in Iran has ever been published, some authors have dealt with species occurring in the Iranian territory, among them Abeille de Perrin (1900) who described the poorly known A. mancatula , seemingly from a single male specimen ( Fig. 19 ) obtained by Reitter from an unspecified locality in the Arax river valley, a natural boundary between Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan. As the name clearly suggest, the presence of dark pronotal bands in this specimen, induced the author to compare it with the similar A. manca . Since Théry (1926) proposed its synonymy with A. manca , the species was for a long time considered so by most authors (Obenberger 1930; Théry 1942; Richter 1945b, 1949; Schaefer 1949; Cobos 1986; Bílý 1997), and only recently has been resurrected from synonymy (Bílý 2006). Some years after Abeille’s description, Obenberger (1913), evidently not taking in consideration A. mancatula , described A. aurulenta f. intermedia from Iran. The description was based upon two specimens, probably obtained by Hauser, and collected in Astrabad, a city presently known as Gorgān, in the Iranian province of Golestan. In his note Obenberger states that, although pubescence and other characters are similar to those of A. aurulenta , the dorsal colouration is closer to A. manca , especially in one of his specimens, which showed dark pronotal bands. This observation about the presence of dark bands in only one of the two type specimens, which had been collected together with many other specimens in a same place, might be considered as a first assessment of the variability of this species, but on the other hand seems not to have raised any doubt in Obenberger about a possible conspecificity of his species with A. mancatula , since in his study “Holarktische Anthaxien” (Obenberger 1917:40) he considered A. intermedia as a form of A. aurulenta , and A. mancatula as a different, valid species. In his contribution to the Catalogus Coleopterorum regionis Palaearcticae (Obenberger 1926:647), he elevated A. intermedia to the rank of species. Some years later, in his contribution to the Coleopterorum Catalogus (Obenberger 1930:496), the same author partly changed his opinion on A. mancatula , and following Théry (1926), he considered it as a synonym of A. manca . Surprisingly, in another subsequent paper (Obenberger 1935), he changed his mind also about A. intermedia , and returned to consider it as a subspecies of A. aurulenta , even using the incorrect spelling “ intermedians”. The evidence that, in this last paper, he was actually referring to the same taxon described in 1913 is given by the detailed description of the difference between intermedians and aurulenta , in particular between the respective genitalia. Consequently the name intermedians, which in the World Catalogue of the Genus Anthaxia (Bílý 1997) had been interpreted as a synonym of A. deaurata (Gmelin, 1790) , in my opinion, must now be considered as a synonym of A. mancatula . In the same article, Obenberger also described further forms of A. aurulenta , among them A. aurulenta ab. babadjanidesi from Caucasus (Babadjanides, near Jelizavetpol) and Daghestan (Temir-Char-Šura), which was correctly considered as an unavailable name (Bílý 1997). Anthaxia intermedia was always considered by Théry (1930, 1942) a synonym of A. aurulenta , while instead Richter (1945a,b, 1949), in his studies on Buprestidae of Caucasus, Middle Asia and USSR, treated it as a good species in the subgenus Trichocratomerus .

As evidenced above, the situation of the mid-oriental species of the group, remained rather confused for a long time, due also to the fact that early authors used to base their descriptions almost exclusively on the colour and external morphological characters. Only recently did I realize that the systematic position of A. intermedia is incorrect. Actually, during the study of a number of specimens, both from my own collection and from collections of other specialists and museums, I had noticed that the pronotal colour pattern of this species shows strong variability, a feature that in many cases has even raised doubts about the true identity of some specimens. I observed in particular, that some of the specimens of A. intermedia with dark pronotal bands from Caucasus and northern Iran ( Fig. 10 ), show strong convergence of habitus with A. mancatula ( Fig. 19 ), while other specimens without pronotal bands ( Fig. 13 ), sometimes even reared together with the banded form from the same wood samples, are extremely similar to the dark form of A. (A.) senicula (Schrank, 1789) occurring in Caucasus ( Fig. 14 ). A few specimens from Lenkoran ( Azerbaijan) hosted in NMPC, that I recently examined, show an unexpected coloured habitus with bright green pronotum and strongly reddish elytra similarly to the form of A. senicula found in southern Russia and northern Caucasus. The definition of the A. manca group in the area comprising eastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and Caucasus, is greatly complicated by the strong convergence of the habitus of different species, and a correct identification can be achieved only through the examination of the male genitalia, while in females it is sometimes extremely difficult and rather doubtfully based on other slight morphological differences.

During my recent visits to the Prague Museum, I have had the opportunity to explain my point of view on this problem to Bílý, and to exchange opinions also with other specialists working on the same species-group, who had also experienced similar problems of determination. Finally, a recent visit to the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, allowed me to study the type of A. mancatula and, having verified the absence of any significant morphological difference, I definitely consider A. intermedia Obenberger, 1913 to be a junior synonym of A. mancatula Abeille, 1900 .

Distribution and bionomy. In the A. manca species-group, A. mancatula is one of the most adaptable and widely diffused species, and in my opinion represents the link between the western and the oriental branches of the group. It was formerly known only from the Caucasus, a region from where it had sporadically been reported, while as a result of the present synonymy, its actual distributional range is now known to reach from northern Caucasus to Central Asiatic Republics, and perhaps also to China. In Iran this species is widespread in the northern part of the country, commonly in all areas where Zelkova and Ulmus can be found, including urban parks and even rows of planted trees along urban streets.

Anthaxia magnifica was described from northern Iran (Bílý 1983), and in a recent paper on the A. manca species-group (Bílý 2005), this species was stated as the only taxon of its group present in this country, thus leaving out the widely distributed A. intermedia , which had actually been described from Iran, and reported from there also by Richter (1945a, 1949, as C. intermedius ), Adeli (1972, as C. intermedius ), Volkovitsh & Alexeev (1994, as C. intermedius ) and Borumand (2002). More recently, the presence of A. intermedia in Iran has also been reported in a paper by Barimani Varandi et al. (2009). The place where A. magnifica was originally found ( Fig. 59 ), is located in the western part of the Elburs mountain range, while a further male that I have recently examined comes from the Kurdistan province. The area of the topotypycal locality of this species is characterized by a mountain environment with a rather scarce tree cover, except along narrowly embanked streams with dense riparian vegetation, mostly composed of Salix and Populus , together with Ulmus and some wild and cultivated Rosaceae . The herein described A. simandli sp. nov. was also found in a similar environment ( Fig. 60 ), in the western part of Iran.

Actually, areas more suitable to the requirements of this species-group are mostly found in the north and western part of the country, that show a more continental climate, very different from the arid steppes and deserts of the Central Plateau, and from the hot desertic coastal region on the Persian Gulf. The discovery of A. simandli sp. nov. takes to three the number of species of this group present in Iran, and definitely fills in the presumed distributional gap in the Middle East. With regard to the possible presence of A. senicula in north-western Iran, I believe that its occurrence in Armenia, in the Khosrov Forest Reserve and in the area of Meghri (legit Kalashian and Aghababian), near the border with Iran, suggests the possibility to eventually find this species also on Iranian territory. This would raise to four the number of species, and turn Iran into the country with the richest number of representatives of this group. The records of A. manca from Iran need confirmation, since I failed to trace any specimen of this species with an undoubted Iranian provenance. At present, I estimate that records of A. manca from Turkey and from the upper Caucasus are plausible, while citations for Iran (Adeli 1972, sub Cratomerus mancus ; Curletti 1994; Cobos 1986; Davatchi et al. 1959, as C. mancus ; Richter 1945a, 1949, as C. mancus ; Schaefer 1937; Théry 1942) are very doubtful, having probably originated from misidentification of specimens of A. mancatula with well developed dark pronotal bands, or even aberrant specimens of other similar species like A. (Anthaxia) holoptera Obenberger, 1914 or A. (Anthaxia) hyrcana Kirsch, 1880 . Most of the authors merely gave credit to old citations reporting them verbatim on their papers.

With regard to bionomy, although species of this group were reported as developing in a great variety of broadleaved plants in other countries, and in one case also in Cupressus (Bílý 2005) , larvae of the three Iranian species have so far been reared only from Zelkova , Ulmus and Salix . Adults, with rare exceptions, are not attracted to flowers, and can usually be observed on sun-exposed leaves of their host plants. It is hard to say whether the extreme rarity of species like A. magnifica and A. simandli sp. nov. is actually due to a scarcity of specimens in nature, rather than to lack of intensive field research concerning the Anthaxia fauna of the Salix complex, plants from which, in the Western Palaearctic, Anthaxia species have only occasionally been reported, while in Iran I have reared several species from this group of plants. The possibility that further undescribed species of this group might still be found in the Middle East and Asian countries is likely, especially in countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China which are still poorly investigated from the entomological point of view.

Figures

FIGURES 17 – 20. Fig. 17, Anthaxia (Anthaxia) magnifica Bílý, 1983, holotype Ƥ (NMPC), dorsal aspect, 9.8 mm; Fig. 18, the same, data labels; Fig. 19, A. (A.) mancatula Abeille, 1900, lectotype 3 (MNHN), dorsal aspect, 5.5 mm; Fig. 20, the same, data labels.

FIGURES 10 – 12. Fig. 10, Anthaxia (Anthaxia) mancatula Abeille, 1900 3 (Iran, Ziaran, DBCR), dorsal aspect, 6.6 mm; Fig. 11, the same ventral aspect; Fig. 12, the same, dorsal aspect of anterior portion of body.

FIGURES 13 – 16. Fig. 13, Anthaxia (Anthaxia) mancatula Abeille, 1900 3 (Iran, Ziaran, DBCR), dorsal aspect of specimen without pronotal bands, 7.0 mm; Fig. 14, A. (A.) senicula (Schrank, 1789) 3 (Armenia, Vedi, Khosrov Forest Reserve, DBCR), dorsal aspect, 8.2 mm; Fig. 15, the same, dorsal aspect of anterior portion of body; Fig. 16, the same, ventral aspect.

FIGURES 59 – 60. Fig. 59, North Iran (Tehrān prov.), 10 km N Ziaran, 2100 m, locality of Anthaxia (Anthaxia) magnifica Bílý, 1983 (on the foreground the small tree of Salix sp. from which were collected the wood samples with larvae); Fig. 60, West Iran (Lorestan prov.), 25 km SE of Dorud, 5 km SE of Darband, 2400 m, topotypical locality of A. (A.) simandli sp. nov.