Cantharis (s.str.) terminata Faldermann, 1835

Kazantsev, S. V., 2022, On the status of some of the Cantharis Linnaeus, 1758 species described in the first half of the 19 th century by Ménétriés, Gebler and Fischer von Waldheim (Coleoptera: Cantharidae), Russian Entomological Journal 31 (1), pp. 42-46 : 44

Cantharis (s.str.) terminata Faldermann, 1835

Fig. 3 .

Cantharis terminata Faldermann, 1835: 192 .

= Cantharis dahlgreni Wittmer, 1984: 1 .

= Telephorus fissicollis Fairmaire, 1884: 179 .

= Podabrus lunulatus Fischer de Waldheim, 1844: 34 , syn.n.

= Malthinus melanoscelis Kolenati, 1846: 41 .

= Cantharis sudetica Letzner, 1847: 75 .

= Necydalis vesubiella Bourgeois, 1893: 19 .

REMARKS. The type of Podabrus lunulatus Fischer de Waldheim, 1844 appears to have been lost. However, its description is unexpectedly explicit: ‘ P [odabrus] flavo-fuscus; thorace marginato nitido, medio nigro-maculato; elytris pallidis, lunula apicis nigra. Long. 4 1/2 lin. Lat. 1 1/2 lin. Caput nutans fuscum, oris partibus pallidioribus. Antennae basi nigrae, medio pallidaae, apice fuscae. Thorax marginatus fuscus splendidus, maculis linearibus duabus obliquis nigris medio. Elytra pallide fusca, subpunctulata, apice nigrocincta sive lunula nigra terminata. Corpus pallum. Pedes pallide flav. Hab. in Rossia meridionali. D. Boschniak.’ [ Fischer von Waldheim, 1844].

This description of a ‘ Podabrus’ from ‘Rossia meridionali’ perfectly fits to just one cantharine species in southern Russia. It is Cantharis terminata Faldermann, 1835 , whose coloration is unique due to the black ‘lunula’ at the apex of each elytron ( Fig. 3 ). Cantharis terminata is distributed in the centre and south of the European part Russia, Western and Central Europe, throughout the Caucasus, in Kazakhstan and the Middle East [ Kazantsev, Brancucci, 2007; Kazantsev, 2011]. As these species apparently belong to a single taxon, Podabrus lunulatus Fischer de Waldheim, 1844 , syn.n. is proposed as a junior synonym of Cantharis terminata Faldermann, 1835 .

Figures

Figs 3–4. General view of Cantharis, males: 3 — C. terminata; 4 — C. pygmaea. Рис. 3–4. ОбЩий вид Cantharis, самцы: 3 — C. terminata; 4 — C. pygmaea.