Sphaerotachys tetraspilus variabilis (Chaudoir, 1876)

Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S., Rasool, Iftekhar, Elgharbawy, Ali A., Nagel, Peter & Aldhafer, Hathal M., 2018, Faunistic inventory and zoogeographical analysis of the ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of Garf Raydah Nature Reserve, Southwestern of Saudi Arabia, and description of a new species of Paussinae, Zootaxa 4514 (3), pp. 341-371 : 363

Sphaerotachys tetraspilus variabilis (Chaudoir, 1876)

Material examined. GRNR: 1614 m: 30.I.2015 , LT, 7 exs; 21.II.2014 , LT, 2 exs; 04.III.2015 , LT, 2 exs; 26.IV.2014 , LT, 1 ex; 26.VIII.2014 , LT, 6 exs; 17.XI.2015 , VC, 1 ex; 11.XII.2014, LT, 3 exs. 1772 m: 30.I.2015 , LT, 1 ex; 04.III.2015 , LT, 3 exs. 1851 m: 06. VI.2014, LT, 2 exs; 20.X.2014 , LT, 3 exs; 12.XII.2014 , LT, 4 exs. 1897 m: 26.IV.2014 , LT, 6 exs; 20.X.2014 , LT, 1 ex. 2285 m: 26.IV.2014 , LT, 4 exs; 27.IV.2014 , LT, 1 ex. 2378 m: 26.IV.2014 , LT, 1 ex. 2578 m: 27.IV.2014 , LT, 1 ex.

Distribution. This subspecies has AFR_ORR_SAR distribution. The taxon is widely distributed in the tropics of western, eastern and central Africa (AO, BF, CD, CI, CV, ER, ET, GM, KE, ML, NE, SD, SN, SO, TD, UG), and northwestern Africa (DZ) extending eastward across southwestern and southern (AE, IN, PK, SA).

Life forms and Remarks. ZS(C)EG species. Britton (1948) listed this species as a color variety of Tachys lucasi (Jacquelin da Val, 1852) from Hejaz in western KSA. Basilewsky (1979) later reported this species as a Tachyphanes from Asir Province. El-Hawagry et al. (2013) recently listed this species as Elaphropus variabilis from Baha Province. Sciaky & Vigna-Taglianti (2003) treats the species as a Sphaerotachys . The species was collected at different altitudes (1614–2578 m) from various vegetation communities (African pencil cedar forest, Olea europaea and Opuntia ficus-indica ) of GRNR.