Dorcadion aethiops (Scopoli, 1763)

Dascălu, Maria-Magdalena, Caba, Florina-Georgiana & Fusu, Lucian, 2022, DNA barcoding in Dorcadionini (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) uncovers mitochondrial-morphological discordance and the hybridogenic origin of several subspecies, Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 22 (1), pp. 205-229 : 220

Dorcadion aethiops and D. fulvum

Dorcadion aethiops belongs to the subgenus Carinatodorcadion , but its mitochondrial DNA is much closer to species of Cribridorcadion than to D. (Carinatodorcadion) fulvum . Prior to Pesarini and Sabbadini (2007), the Greek populations of D. aethiops were regarded as distinct species: Dorcadion propinquum Breuning (described from near Kozani) and Dorcadion majoripenne Pic , with the type locality around Thessaloniki ( Breuning, 1962). According to Danilevsky (2014), both taxa are valid subspecies and a third subspecies, D. aethiops strumense Danilevsky , was described from south Bulgaria.

Therefore, according to the currently accepted geographic distribution of the subspecies, the barcoded specimens are D. aethiops propinquum (aeVe01 from Vermion Mts.), D. aethiops strumense from Kerkini Mts. (aeKe01 and aeKe02 collected at about 10 km from the type locality in S Bulgaria) and the nominotypical D. aethiops aethiops from Romania ( Table 1). Our molecular data agree with the treatment of D. propinquum as a subspecies of D. aethiops and not as a distinct species. The identical DNA barcode in three subspecies distributed over a wide geographic area and the discordance between male genitalia and ITS2 data that places D. aethiops in one subgenus and COI molecular data that disagree are best explained by mitochondrial capture from a yet unknown species in the subgenus Cribridorcadion . The body morphology of D. aethiops is also reminiscent of some species of Dorcadion (Cribridorcadion) devoid of elytral pubescence.

By contrast, over the same geographic distance, D. fulvum is much more variable genetically. However, the three analysed subspecies cannot be distinguished based on the DNA barcode. Hence, we confirm the presence of the nominotypical subspecies in Romania, west of the Carpathians, based on morphology only. It was cited for the area by Zamoroka (2019) based solely on distribution data.