Pamphagulus mateui Morales Agacino, 1949

Louveaux, Alain, Garcin, Annie & Desutter-Grandcolas, Laure, 2022, A comprehensive analysis of Morales Agacino entomological expeditions in Spanish Sahara 1941 - 1946, with an updated checklist of collection sites and collected insect species (Insecta Polyneoptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera Carabidae and Tenebrionidae), Zoosystema 44 (10), pp. 227-258 : 236-237

Synonymy of Pamphagulus mateui Morales Agacino, 1949 and Pamphagulus vicinus Ramme, 1931

Descamps (1970) compared two paratypes of Pamphagulus mateui with the female type of Pamphagulus vicinus Ramme, 1931 and studied eight males and three females of P. vicinus from the Sebkhat Tah preserved at the MNHN. He concluded that Pamphagulus mateui Morales Agacino, 1949 is a synonym of Pamphagulus vicinus Ramme, 1931 : “(…) aucune différence de nature à justifier des divisions spécifiques n’a pu être relevée. P. vicinus est cependant très variable quant à la rugosité tégumentaire et l’ampleur de la saillie pronotale.” [(…) no differences that could justify specific divisions could be found. P. vicinus is, however, highly variable for integument roughness and for the extent of pronotal projection.] (our translation).

Also, the subspecies, Pamphagulus mateui audebdidetensis Morales Agacino, 1949 , was collected in six localities. In two of these six localities, viz. Bu Kerch and Agli Ben Ali, it was collected the same day with P. mateui mateui ; it was also collected the same day at Jatuta el Bar with P. vicinus (Table 5). Descamps (1970) did not raise the issue of Pamphagulus mateui audebdidetensis. But mapping the distributions of the three Pamphagulus taxa shows a consistency between the data of Morales Agacino & Descamps (Fig. 4; Table 5).

On the basis of these distributional data, the synonymy of the two subspecies of P. mateui should be reconsidered, as they occur together in the same collecting sites. In the same way, the examination of the specimens collected by Morales Agacino should help considering if P. mateui should be synonymized with P. vicinus , as suggested by Descamps (1970): a single species, Pamphagulus vicinus , could actually be present along the coast of Atlantic Sahara from the Sebkhat Tah (27°40’N, 12°48’W) to the Cap Blanc peninsula (21°06’N, 17°03’W).