Attagenus (Attagenus) simonis Reitter, 1881

Nardi, Gianluca & Hava, Jiri, 2013, Italian Dermestidae: notes on some species and an updated checklist (Coleoptera), ZooKeys 360, pp. 45-81 : 53

Attagenus (Attagenus) simonis Reitter, 1881

Attagenus tigrinus F. [= (Fabricius, 1792)] v. Simoni [sic!] Reit.: Bertolini 1904: 58.

Attagenus bifasciatus Oliv. [= (Olivier, 1790)] v. Simoni [sic!] Reitt.: Luigioni 1923b: 4.

Attagenus (Lanorus) bifasciatus Oliv. a Simoni [sic!] Reitt.: Luigioni 1929: 538; Porta 1929: 302.

Attagenus bifasciatus (Olivier, 1790) var. simoni [sic!] Reitter, 1881: Sapuppo 2002: 187-188.

Attagenus (Attagenus) simonis Reitter, 1881: Háva and Nardi 2007: 418-419.

Material examined.

None.

Chorotype.

E-Mediterranean: Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria ( Háva 2007).

Italian distribution.

Latium ( Luigioni 1929), Campania ( Bertolini 1904, Luigioni 1929, Porta 1929), Capri Island ( Luigioni 1923b, 1929, Porta 1929) and Sicily ( Luigioni 1929, Sapuppo 2002).

Remarks.

This species was recently excluded from the Italian fauna ( Háva and Nardi 2007, 2011); also according to Mroczkowski (1968: 81, as Attagenus bifasciatus var. simonis), it occurs only in some East-Mediterranean countries. Nevertheless, an escatomediterranean distributional pattern ( Zilli 2000) could explain the occurrence of this species in Italy.

Gulli (1961: 4, as Attagenus bifasciatus Oliv. var. Rossii Ganglb. [= Ganglbauer, 1904] and Attagenus bifasciatus var. Simoni [sic!]) recorded Sicilian specimens of Attagenus (Attagenus) rossii (identified by A. Porta) with a colour similar to Attagenus (Attagenus) simonis ; these specimens are also listed by Sapuppo (2002), but unfortunately their re-examination has so far been impossible.