Xantholinus chiosicus ASSING, 2015

Assing, Volker, 2016, On the Staphylinidae of the Greek island Karpathos (Insecta Coleoptera), Linzer biologische Beiträge 48 (1), pp. 235-263 : 248

Xantholinus chiosicus ASSING, 2015

C o m m e n t: This species poses a mystery. Only recently redescribed from the Greek island Chios, it was subsequently recorded also from Samos ( ASSING 2015 b, c) ; it is unknown from Rhodos. The material from Karpathos is distinguished from that from Chios and Samos by darker coloration (particularly of the pronotum and the elytra), but I have found no significant differences in the internal structures of the aedeagus, suggesting that the populations from the three islands are conspecific. All 32 specimens collected thus far are micropterous, like all other species of the subgenus Helicophallus COIFFAIT, 1956 known from the East Mediterranean. Considering that Karpathos has had no land connection to Samos and Chios for more than four million years, it appears remarkable that no speciation should have occurred. This species may be wingdimorphic after all .