Chlaenius (Chlaeniellus) melampus Ménétriés, 1849

Kabak, I. I. & Liang, H. - B., 2021, An annotated list of the genus Chlaenius Bonelli, 1810 (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, Far Eastern Entomologist 429, pp. 12-28 : 17-18

Chlaenius (Chlaeniellus) melampus Ménétriés, 1849

Chlaenius (Chlaeniellus) melampus: Mandl, 1983: 414 [“Thien Shan-Musart oder Thien

Shan-Tekes-fluss”; “Thien Shan, Musart; Thien Shan-Tekestal (der Tekesfluss entwässert das

Musart-Massiv der Thien Shan-Kette nach Norden zum Kungesfluss)”].

MATERIAL EXAMINED. China: Xinjiang, Tacheng City , ca. 46.744°N, 83.115°E ,

h= 594 m, river dam, 29.VI 1999, 2 ♂, leg. Hongbin Liang ( IOZ); Xinjiang, Shihezi , railway station, ca. 44.272°N, 86.060°E, h = 518 m, 17.VI 2008, 1 ♂, leg. Pengfei Li ( IOZ); Xinjiang ,

Shihezi, Shihezi East Park, 18. VI 2008 , 1 ♂, 1 ♀, leg. Pengfei Li ( IOZ); Xinjiang, Kash

River, Nilki env., 43°46'48''N, 82°29'05''E, h= 1025 m, 15.VII 2017, 1 ♂, leg. I.I. Kabak

(cBK).

NOTE. Chlaenius melampus is closely related to sympatric Ch. chrysothorax in having similar body shape, color of the upper-side, structure of both, aedeagus and apical gonocoxites.

However, it differs from the latter in having clearly darkened legs and basal antennomeres.

The taxonomic status of these two taxa seems to be uncertain, quite probably, they are conspecific. We prefer putting this question aside from our present work before studying of supplementary material.

DISTRIBUTION. Chlaenius melampus was described on one male specimen, collected by Russian naturalist A. Lehmann in “Turcomanie” (Ménétriés, 1848). The type locality cannot be attributed to the modern Turkmenistan territory: at that time this toponym used for the region of north-eastern Caspian area from the Emba River in the North to the Mangyshlak

Plateau in the South (now Western Kazakhstan), for details see V. Motschulsky (1850).

However, the recently obtained material does not confirm the presence of Ch. melampus there. We suppose that the type specimen was collected in the region of lower course of the

Syr-Darya River, where A. Lehmann worked in the beginning of July 1841 (Butenev, 1842;

Postnikov, 2012; Malikov, 2018). The species is reliably known from southern Cisbalkhashia

(the Ili and Karatal rivers), Issyk-Kul Hollow, valleys and foothills of the both northern and western peripheries of the Tien Shan in Kazakhstan, Kirgizia and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (Kryzhanovskij et al., 1995; Kabak & Ovtchinnikov, 2002). The records of Ch. melampus from Bashkiria (Motschulsky, 1850; Jacobson, 1906) are wrong,

those from the southern part of European Russia, Transcaucasia, Tajikistan and Siberia

(Kirschenhofer, 2017) are doubtful. In Xinjiang, Ch. melampus is known from the mountains in the north-western parts: the Tacheng, Shihezi, Nilki, Zhaosu and Tekes counties.

HABITAT. Chlaenius melampus inhabits banks of the rivers on plains and foothills up to

1100 m.