Poecilus Bonelli, 1810

Bousquet, Yves, 2012, Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico, ZooKeys 245, pp. 1-1722 : 495

Genus Poecilus Bonelli, 1810

Poecilus Bonelli, 1810: Tabula Synoptica. Type species: Carabus cupreus Linnaeus, 1758 designated by Curtis (1827: plate 187). Etymology. From the Greek poecilos (varicolored), possibly alluding to the variously colored species Bonelli had in his hands [masculine].

Feronia Latreille, 1816: 191. Type species: Carabus cupreus Linnaeus, 1758 designated by Blanchard [in Audouin et al. 1842: plate 22]. Etymology. Divinity of the ancient Italians, guardian of the plants and the emancipated (Theil 1882: 1071) [feminine].

Thalia Hope, 1838: 70 [junior homonym of Thalia Bruguière, 1791]. Unnecessary replacement name for Feronia Latreille, 1816. Etymology. Thalia was one of the Muse [feminine].

Enchores Gistel, 1848a: x, xi. Unnecessary replacement name for Poecilus Bonelli, 1810.

Feronius Wencker and Silbermann, 1866: 7. Unnecessary replacement name for Feronia Latreille, 1816.

Diversity.

About 140 species (Lorenz 2005: 266-269) in the Nearctic (13 species) and Palaearctic (128 species) Regions; five of the North American species extend into northern Mexico and Cuba. The species of Poecilus are arrayed in seven subgenera: Poecilus s.str. (about 70 species), Angoleus Villa and Villa (23 species), Parapedius Seidlitz (two species in the Mediterranean region), Carenostylus Chaudoir (one Mediterranean species), Derus (23 species), Metapedius Fiori (one species from Italy), and Pseudoderus Seidlitz (18 species in western Asia).

Identification.

No review or identification key is available for the North American species and a revision of the genus is needed.

Taxonomic Note.

Lyropedius Seidlitz (two eastern European species) is treated as a subgenus of Poecilus by some authors, including Kryzhanovskij and Abdurakhmanov (1983). Bousquet (1999: 58) pointed out that the taxon, based on character of the male genitalia, is probably not closely related to Poecilus . The taxon is listed as a subgenus of Pterostichus by Bousquet (2003d: 498).