Mylabris (Mylabris) guerini Chevrolat, 1840

Pan, Zhao & Bologna, Marco A., 2014, Taxonomy, Bionomics and Faunistics of the Nominate Subgenus of Mylabris Fabricius, 1775, with the description of five new species (Coleoptera: Meloidae: Mylabrini), Zootaxa 3806 (1), pp. 1-78 : 28-29

Mylabris (Mylabris) guerini Chevrolat, 1840

Figs. 1 L, 15A–G

Mylabris guerini Chevrolat, 1840: 271 ; Kocher, 1954: 273; 1956: 54

Mylabris rubripennis Chevrolat, 1840: 270 ; Lucas, 1849: 387 (uncertain synonymy).

Mylabris tricincta var. guerini, Reiche, 1866: 635 .

Mylabris variabilis var. guerini, Marseul, 1870: 69 ; 1872: 492; Gemminger & Harold, 1870: 2144; Baudi di Selve, 1878b: 1162; Borchmann, 1917: 57.

Mylabris variabilis var. rubripennis, Gemminger & Harold, 1870: 2145 ; Marseul, 1872: 492; Baudi di Selve, 1878b: 1162; Borchmann, 1917: 57.

Mylabris quadripunctata tricincta m. guerini, Sumakov, 1915: 24 ; 1930: 39.

Mylabris quadripunctata var. guerini, Mader, 1927: 858 .

Mylabris quadripunctata ab. normandi Pic, 1936: 155.

Mylabris (Mylabris) guerini, Pardo Alcaide, 1950: 75 ; 1954b: 76; Bologna, 1991a: 223; 2008: 397.

Zonabris variabilis var. lambaesis Pic, 1953: 499 .

Type locality. “Bône” ( Chevrolat, 1840). This is the late French name of the town of Annāba, along the eastern coasts of Algeria.

Type specimens. We checked for types of Chevrolat at MNHN, but all of them seem to be lost.

Description. Body length: 10.5–20 mm; setae only black, but mixed golden and black on legs; antennomeres usually uniformly black, rarely III–VI dark reddish, III ca. 1.5 as long as IV ( Fig. 15 A), XI ca. twice as long as wide; pronotal punctures wide, deep, very contiguous or confluent, especially on fore third, fore transverse depression deep; elytral black pattern very variable, as in Fig. 15 B, with an apical fascia wide; mesosternal suture generally indistinct or obliterated ( Fig. 15 C); male gonoforceps slender in lateral view ( Fig. 15 E), fused ventrally in basal half ( Fig. 15 D); distal hook of aedeagus positioned at apex and differently inclined vs. the proximal one, sub-oblique to the aedeagal axis ( Fig. 15 F).

Taxonomic remarks. Chevrolat (1840) described in the same paper three species from Algeria ( M. guerini , M. rubripennis , and M. tricincta ), the types of which are missing (see above), characterized by a very similar elytral pattern. For this reason, at present it is impossible to define what these species are. Pardo Alcaide (1950), referred respectively to M. guerini (and considered M. rubripennis as its synonym) and M. tricincta , the two northern African morpho-species, which are well distinct by the male genitalia characters, but have with similar elytral pattern. It being impossible to define the species by the types examination, we considered their definitions, synonymies, and characters according to Pardo Alcaide (1950).

Distribution. N Morocco, N Algeria, N Tunisia.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Habitus of the Mylabris (Mylabris) spp., dorsal view: A. M. alpicola, ♂; B. M. amorii, ♀; C. M. apiceguttata, ♂; D. M. apicenigra, ♂; E. M. barezensis, ♂; F. M. batnensis, ♂; G. M. cernyi, ♂; H. M. ciliciensis, ♂; I. M. concolor, ♂; J. M. desertica, ♀; K. M. emiliae, ♂; L. M. guerini, ♂; M. M. kodymi, ♂; N. M. madani, ♂; O. M. madoni, ♂; P. M. mediorientalis, ♂; Q. M. olivieri, ♂; R. M. parumpicta, ♀; S. M. poggii, ♂; T. M. pseudoemiliae, ♂; U. M. quadripunctata, ♂; V. M. schreibersi, ♂; W. M. tauricola, ♂; X. M. tricincta, ♂; Y. M. variabilis, ♂. Scale bar = 5 mm.

FIGURE 15. Mylabris (M.) guerini Chevrolat: A. antenna; B. elytral pattern; C. mesosternum; D. tegmen, ventral view; E. tegmen, lateral view; F. aedeagus, lateral view; G. spiculum gastrale, dorsal view. Scale bar = 1 mm.