Maximus mimosae ( Olivier, 1807 )

Ahmed, Zubair, Meregalli, Massimo & Fatima, Nadia, 2016, Two species of Cleonini new for Pakistan and new synonymies (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Lixinae), Zootaxa 4161 (1), pp. 121-123 : 123

Maximus mimosae ( Olivier, 1807)

New data. PAKISTAN: Balochistan Province, Nushki, Zangi Navar , 29°25'N 65°46'E, 14.vi.2014, Shuja Jan, 1 ex. ( ZACP)

Discussion. The genus Maximus Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal, 2009 , type species Cleonus verrucosus Gebler, 1830 (= Brachyrhinus granulatus Fischer von Waldheim, 1821 ), was proposed as a replacement name for a group of species originally assigned to the genus Stephanophorus Chevrolat, 1872 (not Strickland, 1841) ( Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal 2009). It includes 15 species, 14 of which are present in central Asia, and one is known from northern Africa (Meregalli, unpublished).

Maximus mimosae was described (as Lixus Fabricius, 1801 ) from Baghdad ( Olivier 1807). The species is known from Iran , Iraq, Israel, Egypt (Sinai) , Syria and eastern Turkey (Meregalli, unpublished), so the new record broadens its range at the south-eastern limits . Type specimens are conserved at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, in the general collection ( Figs 5, 6). The specimen from Pakistan closely matches those from the rest of its range. The habitat where it was found is a sandy desert, with shrubs and Tamarix sp. growing near a lake with brackish waters, south-west of Nushki , in Balochistan .