Blaps verrucosa Adams, 1817

Nabozhenko, Maxim V., Chigray, Ivan A., Ntatsopoulos, Konstantinos & Papadopoulou, Anna, 2022, A key to Russian and Eastern European species of Blaps Fabricius, 1775 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Blaptinae) with the description of a new species from the North Caucasus supported by morphological and molecular data, Zootaxa 5116 (2), pp. 267-291 : 285-286

Blaps verrucosa Adams, 1817

( Figs 6 , 23A, B )

= Blaps scabriuscula Ménétriés, 1832 syn. n.

= Blaps montana Motschulsky, 1839 syn. n.

Blaps verrucosa was described from the surroundings of Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia). Adams’s description is detailed and completely corresponds to Blaps scabriuscula Ménétriés, 1832 described from Baku ( Azerbaijan) ( Ménétriés 1832) and B. montana Motschulsky, 1839 described from Kurush (Southern Dagestan, Russia) ( Motschulsky 1839). Types of all species are lost, but the first author examined specimens from Baku, Kurush and Georgia ( Abdurakhmanov & Nabozhenko 2011) and confirmed that all three taxa are morphologically conspecific and differ only in the level of elytral rugosity: from weak, poorly visible wrinkles in some specimens from Kurush and Baku to strongly and coarsely rugose specimens from mountains of Inner Dagestan, Chechnya and southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus in Georgia. Adams mentioned that this very rare species has rugose flattened elytra with mucro, subquadrate pronotum, and long legs. Only one species with such characters occurs in Georgia, and it was listed for the eastern part of the country (Nakalakebi, Kazbegi) by Dzhambazishvili (2000). As a result, the following synonymy is proposed: Blaps verrucosa Adams, 1817 = Blaps scabriuscula Ménétriés, 1832 syn. n., = Blaps montana Motschulsky, 1839 syn. n.

Notes. A.V. Bogatshev confused the status and subspecies of B. verrucosa and mixed them with other species. The following interpretations were published by Bogatshev:

1. Bogatshev (1934): Blaps montana (= Blaps scabriuscula , as a junior synonym). In addition, he mentioned two of its subspecies B. montana rugosa and B. montana chevsuretica. Both names are nomina nuda, because descriptions are absent. The Greater Caucasus.

2. Bogatshev (1938): Blaps montana . Russia: Dagestan (Kurush, Chadakolob); Azerbaijan: Sary-Bash; Georgia: Kheledula, Latal, Lailchala, Mestia.

3. Bogatshev (1958): Blaps scabriuscula scabriuscula : Azerbaijan: Baku and surrounds; Blaps scabriuscula montana : Greater Caucasus; B. scabriuscula puella Allard, 1881 : Armenia, Azerbaijan (Karabakh, Nakhchivan), Eastern Anatolia.

Blaps puella , which was interpreted as a subspecies of B. scabriuscula ( Bogatshev 1958) , belongs to the mortisaga species-group with acute, strongly elongate reservoirs of the spermatheca ( Chigray & Nabozhenko 2016, Figs 7A–C ) only slightly differing from B. mortisaga.

Figures

FIGURE 6. B. verrucosa, habitus. A, B = ♂; C = ♀; A, C = dorsal view; B = ventral view.

FIGURE 7. B. rugosa, habitus. A, B = ♂; C = ♀; A, C = dorsal view; B = ventral view (on: Chigray (2020).

FIGURE 23. Blaps spp., habitus. A = non-rugose male of B. verrucosa from Baku, Azerbaijan, (the type locality of B. scabriuscula) ZM MSU; B = rugose male of B. verrucosa from Georgia (Kazbegi), ZIN; C = lectotype labels of B. subalpina, D = lectotype of B. subalpina, male (ZIN); E = lectotype labels of B. pterotapha; F = lectotype of B. pterotapha, female (ZIN).