Lathrobium (s.str.) ursinum Ryvkin, 2011

Ryvkin, Alexandr B., 2014, Notes On Distribution And Taxonomy Of Some Far Eastern Staphylinidae (Coleoptera), Acta Biologica Universitatis Daugavpiliensis 14 (2), pp. 177-185 : 184

Lathrobium (s.str.) ursinum Ryvkin, 2011 stat. nov.

(Figs. 10–11)

ishiharai ursinum Ryvkin, 2011: 155

ishiharai ursinum ; Assing, 2013b: 1645 (remarks)

Material. RUSSIA: 1 male-HT( ZMMU): Amur Area.— 1 male, 1 female-PTT(AR): Amur Area.— 1 male, 1 female-PTT(AVSh): Maritime Province.— 1 female (AR): Maritime Prov. [For the detailes see the original description] .

Remarks. In 2011, I described from the Russian Far East a new taxon which was supposed to be a subspecies of L. ishiharai : L. ishiharai ursinum . The decision concerning its taxonomic status had evident reasons: though all the male specimens of L. ishiharai ursinum captured from three geographical points had aedeagi of identical shape which differed obviously from that which was figured in the original description of L. ishiharai , both taxa appeared to be very similar; and insular isolation of the latter made the subspecific status the most appropriate one until another concept would be supported by any new data.

Assing (2013b), when providing new data on the presence of L. ishiharai in China (see above), supposed that the subspecific status of L. ishiharai ursinum was doubtful (“Consequently, zoogeographic evidence would suggest that the subspecific status of L. ishiharai ursinum is doubtful.”). Unfortunately this author has disclosed neither what status he would suggest as more suitable for the taxon nor which “zoogeographic evidence” his idea is based on. Meanwhile, the Chinese material forces me indeed to revise the rank of the taxon under consideration. The new material confirms that the stable difference in the shape of the aedeagus between the specimens from the Russian Far East and the populations from Japan and China (compare Figs.10-11 and 12-13) are caused not by the interpopulational variability in conditions of insular isolation, as it could be supposed before, but by the real specific status of both L. ishiharai and L. ursinum . Moreover, one can believe that the boundary between these taxa coincides with the boundary between the Manchurian and Japan-Chinese biogeographical provinces ( Razumovskiy, 1980), at least in the continental part. Therefore, L. ursinum is to be regarded as species propria.