Pristilophus melancholicus

Pristilophus melancholicus (Fabricius, 1798)

(Figs. 3; 4 B)

Chinese common name: 墨色古叩甲

For detailed citations see Tarnawski (1995) and Schimmel et al. (2015), herein only supplemental citations provided: Selatosomus (Pristilophus) melancholicus tianshanicus: Kishii & Jiang 1999: 12; Cate et al. 2007: 181. Pristilophus melancholicus: Schimmel et al. 2015: 41.

Material examined. CHINA: Xinjiang: 1 male, Nalati Town [那拉提镇], Xinyuan County [新源县], 1500m, 8.VI.2014, Lu-Yu Wang et Xuan-Kong Jiang leg.; 1 female, Banfanggou [板房沟], Nanshan [南山], Urumqi City [乌鲁木齐市], 1916m, 30.V.2014, Lu-Yu Wang et Xuan-Kong Jiang leg. Inner Mongolia (Neimenggu): 1 male, Mt. Tianchishan [天池山], Arxan Forest Park [阿尔山森林公园], Arxan City [阿尔山市], Hinggan League [兴安 盟], 1110m, 3.VII.2015, Gui-Qiang Huang leg. (all SWU).

Remarks. Kishii & Jiang (1999) first recorded this species in Northeast Inner Mongolia (Ganhe Town [甘河镇], in Hulun Buir City [呼伦贝尔市]) and North Xinjiang (Habahe County [哈巴河县] and Fuyun County [富蕴县]) and treated the recorded specimens as subspecies S. m. tianshanicus; however, Schimmel et al. (2015) did not include the record. In this article, the specimens examined from Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia confirmed the occurrence of this species in China. The specimens from Xinjiang have a dark green metallic reflection on the elytra (Fig. 3 A), the pronotum and abdomen are blackish brown (Fig. 3 A–B), apex of the paramere has a small hook (Fig. 3 C), the male (10.7 mm) is much smaller than the female (14.1 mm); while the specimen from Inner Mongolia show some differences from the former, which has a green metallic reflection on the elytra and purple metallic reflection at the base of elytra (Fig. 3 D), the pronotum and abdomen are black (Fig. 3 D–E), apex of the paramere has a large hook (Fig. 3 F), the male specimen is about 14.6 mm.

This species is widely distributed from Europe to the Russian Far East (Kamchatka). Historically, there were many subspecies and variations, but only three subspecies are currently recognized (Tarnawski 1995, Cate et al. 2007). According to the previous studies (Tarnawski 1995; Kishii & Jiang 1999; Schimmel et al. 2015), the population from Xinjiang belongs to Pristilophus melancholicus tianshanicus; while the subspecies status of the population from Northeast Inner Mongolia needs to be further confirmed, noting that the gap between the two localities measures more than 2,400 km (Fig. 4 B). Moreover, the only two specimens from Inner Mongolia (Kishii & Jiang 1999 and this study) show distinct difference in the hook of paramere (comparing with Figs. 3b and 3c shown in Kishii & Jiang (1999), the new material studied in this article has bigger hook in parameres). Since it’s a very widely distributed species, and because of the inadequate samples, it’s still difficult to verify the subspecies and clarify the variations of different populations.

Distribution. Europe, Caucasus, Siberia, China (Fig. 4 B), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan.