Malachius stolatus Mulsant & Godart, 1855

Švihla, Vladimír & Hájek, Jiří, 2009, Taxonomic changes in Eastern Mediterranean Malachius (Coleoptera: Malachiidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 49 (1), pp. 217-224 : 221-222

Malachius stolatus Mulsant & Godart, 1855 stat. restit.

Malachius stolatus Mulsant & Godart, 1855: 168 . Type locality: Crimea [ Ukraine].

Malachius suturellus Kiesenwetter, 1859: 31 (synonymised by PEYRON 1877). Type locality: Crete [ Greece].

Malachius fallaciosus Baudi di Selve, 1871: 64 (synonymised by MAYOR 2007). Type locality: Cyprus.

Malachius carnifex var. latenotatus Pic, 1914: 33 (synonymised by MAYOR 2007). Type locality: ‘ Turquie d’Asie’ [= Asian part of Turkey].

Malachius carnifex var. naxosensis Pic, 1923: 2 (synonymised by MAYOR 2007). Type locality: Naxos [ Greece].

Malachius bilyi Švihla, 1987: 282 , syn. nov. Type locality: Greece, Crete, Lefka Ori Mts., Omalos.

Type material examined. Malachius bilyi : HOLOTYPE: J, labelled: ‘Crete, Lefka Ora, Omalos, 26.v.–1.vi.[19]80, Bílý, Brodský leg. [white label, printed] // HOLOTYPUS, Malachius bilyi sp. n., Vl. Švihla det. 1987 [red label, printed and handwritten]’. PARATYPES: 2 JJ, same locality data as holotype, ‘ PARATYPUS, Malachius bilyi sp. n., Vl. Švihla det. 1987 [red label, printed and handwritten]’; 1 J, ‘ Crete , Lefka Ori Mts., Omalos, 3.vi.1981, Bílý leg. [white label, printed] // PARATYPUS, Malachius bilyi sp. n., Vl. Švihla det. 1987 [red label, printed and handwritten]’ (all NMPC).

Additional material examined. ITALY: BASILICATA: Valsinni, Sinni riv., 18.iv.1990, I. Kovář lgt., 1 J . LIBYA: Al Jabal al Akhdar, Shabat , steppe, 25.iv.1990, K. Hůrka lgt., 1 J . GREECE: CENTRAL MACEDONIA: Mt. Athos, 1 J ; ATTICA: 1 J; CRETE: Lefka Ori Mts., Omalos , vi. 1926, 1 ♀ ; same data, but 27.v.–1.vi.1980, S. Bílý & O. Brodský lgt., 3 ♀♀ ; same data, but v.1981, J. Kratochvíl lgt., 3 ♀♀ ; same data, but 3.vi.1981, S. Bílý lgt., 8 ♀♀ ; same data, but 22.–30.v.1990, I. Jeniš lgt., 1 J 1 ♀ ; same data, but 17.–19.v.2003, E. Jendek lgt., 13 JJ 13 ♀♀ ; Mirtos , iv.1994, I. Jeniš lgt., 1 J . TURKEY: İSTANBUL: İstanbul env., 1 ♀ ; Kadiköy, 2 JJ 1 ♀. BURSA: Bursa, A. Hoffer

lgt., 4 JJ 3 ♀♀. HATAY: Samandaği, Asi Nehri riv. valley, 24.iv.1992, Z. Malinka lgt., 1 J. CYPRUS: Athienou env., 22.iii.1994, Preiss lgt., 1 J 1 ♀ (all NMPC).

Comments on classification. The synonymy of Malachius carnifex established above leads to a rather complicated nomenclatorial case (see also MAYOR 2007):

After placing the ‘true’ M. carnifex in a synonymy with M. rubidus , the oldest available name for M. carnifex sensu PEYRON (1877) , ABEILLE DE PERRIN (1891), KRAUSS (1902) and EVERS (1985) is Malachius suturalis Motschulsky, 1854 . However, we studied one syntype of the latter species and it does not agree with the subsequent interpretation of M. carnifex of the four authors mentioned above. Therefore we remove M. suturalis from the synonymy (see below).

The oldest available name then becomes Malachius stolatus Mulsant & Godart, 1855 . This species, synonymised with M. carnifex by PEYRON (1877), was described from a single male from Crimea. Unfortunately, we were neither able to trace the type nor have any other specimens from Crimea at our disposal (apparently the type material of Mulsant was passed to his son and then got destroyed). Nevertheless, we consider M. stolatus as a valid name for the former M. carnifex sensu auctorum although we are aware that the identity of M. stolatus based only on the original description is doubtful: one character agrees with the concept of M. carnifex (head before eyes yellow) and another one with M. rubidus (venter of body entirely metallic).

Malachius suturellus Kiesenwetter, 1859 was synonymised with M. carnifex by PEYRON (1877). Although the type material of M. suturellus was destroyed (M. BAEHR, pers. comm.), the original description agrees well with specimens from Crete at our disposal as well as the type material of M. bilyi Švihla, 1987 and no other species of Malachius are known from Crete. We therefore consider M. bilyi as a junior subjective synonym of M. stolatus .

Moreover, the concept of M. carnifex by PEYRON (1877), ABEILLE DE PERRIN (1891), KRAUSS (1902) and EVERS (1985) agrees with M. stolatus only for males. The female was described separately as Malachius fallaciosus Baudi di Selve, 1871 and synonymised subsequently with Malachius graecus Kraatz, 1862 by PEYRON (1877). PARDO ALCAIDE (1975) was the first to recognise the sexual dichroism of M. carnifex , removed M. fallaciosus from the synonymy with M. graecus and classified it as the female variety of M. carnifex . He also mentioned that he did not examine any females with the elytra coloured as in the male (only sutural portion metallic blue or green), which is in good accordance with female specimens collected together with males that are at our disposal.

MAYOR (2007) listed two additional synonyms: M. carnifex var. latenotatus Pic, 1914 , described from a female from Asian Turkey, and M. carnifex var. naxosensis Pic, 1923 , described from a male from the Naxos Island. We did not study the type material of either taxon and therefore cannot revise the synonymies. However, we would like to mention the urgent need of a critical revision of at least some of these taxa; based on the brief original descriptions, they might represent synonyms of other Eastern Mediterranean Malachius .

Distribution. Italy, Greece, Crete, Turkey, Cyprus. The occurrence in Greece: Naxos, Crimea, ‘Caucasus’ ( MAYOR 2007) and Georgia (PEYRON 1877) needs to be verified by voucher specimens. New species for Libya.