Rugilus (Rugilus) arabs (Saulcy, 1865)

Assing, Volker, 2019, A revision of Palaearctic and Oriental Rugilus. VI. Two new species Irom China, a new synonymy, and additional records (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Paederinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 51 (1), pp. 5-20 : 7

Rugilus (Rugilus) arabs (SAULCY, 1865)

Stilicus couloni DRUGMAND, 1989: 110 ff., nov.syn.

C o m m e n t: The original description of Stilicus couloni is based on a male holotype and three female paratypes from ̎ Israël: Tel Dan̎ ( DRUGMAND 1989). An earlier attempt of clarifying the status of this doubtful name was unsuccessful because the type material was not found ( ASSING 2012a). Recently, however, ANLAŞ (2017) retrieved this type material on the occasion of a visit to the natural history museum in Brussels. He redescribed the type material, compared it with R. orbiculatus (PAYKULL, 1789), and provided illustrations of external and the male sexual characters. Based on these illustrations, especially those of the aedeagus, S. couloni is neither similar nor closely allied to R. orbiculatus , but undoubtedly conspecific with R. arabs . Remarkably, ANLAŞ (2017) reported specimens of R. arabs from Turkey and Lebanon in the same paper, which raises doubts regarding their identity.