Ochodaeus (Diplochodaeus) alleonis Fairmaire, 1884

(Fig. 5, 6)

Ochodaeus alleonis Fairmaire, 1884: 218. – Seidlitz, 1891: 153. – Reitter, 1892: 109. – Koenig, 1904: 142. – Anonymous, 1907: 304. – Arrow, 1912: 21 [catalogue]. – Schmidt, 1913: 54 [catalogue]. – Olsoufieff, 1918: 31. – Winkler, 1929 [1924–1932]: 1063 [catalogue]. – Panin, 1957: 220. – López-Colón, 2003: 140.

Ochodaeus alleoni [sic] Frm. – Marseul, 1886: 224. – Semenov-Tian-Shanskii, 1914: 22. – Iablokoff-Khnzorian, 1967: 63.

Ochodaeus cornifrons Solsky, 1876. – Nikolajev, 1987: 130. – Baraud, 1992: 98. – Guéorguiev & Bunalski, 2004: 270. – López-Colón et al., 2006: 95 [catalogue]. – Tauzin, 2015: 174. – Shokhin, 2019: 67.

Ochodaeus (Diplochodaeus) alleonis Fairmaire, 1884. – Huchet & Hillert, 2025: 131.

Ochodaeus inscutellaris Pic, 1900: 6. – junior synonym of O. alleonis (Huchet & Hillert, 2025: 132).

Ochodaeus graecus Petrovitz, 1968: 49. – junior synonym of O. alleonis (Huchet & Hillert, 2025: 132).

Type material examined

Lectotype, ♀, NMNHS, specimen glued on paper card, dissected, the genitalia stored in a microvial containing glycerin pinned under the specimen. Labels: (a), rectangular, framed, handwritten: “Dobrodja”; (b) rectangular, yellowed paper, handwritten:“ Ochodaeus / Alleonis Fairm. / N. S.”; (c) white, rectangular, printed: “♀”; (d) red, rectangular, printed: “LECTOTYPE”; (e) red, rectangular, printed: “ Ochodaeus alleonis Fairmaire, 1884, LECTOTYPE, J.-B. Huchet des. 2024”.

Other specimens examined (5 ex.)

ISRAEL

Central Coastal Plain

- Herzliyya, 13.II., leg. Bytinski. Solz., coll. Petrovitz, inscutellaris (1 ♀ / MHNG);

- Herzliyya, hill, 32°11ʹN 34°49ʹE, 7.III.2008, A. Freidberg (1 ♂ / SMNH> CJBH);

- Herzliyya, hill, 32°11ʹN 34°49ʹE, 17.III.2012, A. Freidberg, 120418(1 ♀ / SMNH);

- TelAviv, AbuKabbir, 25.III.2025, G.Pisanty (1 ♂ / SMNH);

Jordan Valley

- 50 m, Umm Zuqa Nature Reserve, Rt. 5788, 18.III.2008, V.Chikatunov (1 ♀ / SMNH).

Remark about Ochodaeus inscutellaris Pic, 1900

Described from the Jordan Valley, near Jericho, on the bank of the Jordan River (approx. 31°52′0″N 35°27′0″E), Ochodaeus inscutellaris was based on a single specimen, the holotype of which is no longer present in Pic’s collection housed at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) and is presumed lost. The study of four specimens from Israel that match the original description has enabled clarification of the taxonomic status of this species. As concluded by Huchet & Hillert (2025), O. inscutellaris should be regarded as a junior synonym of O. alleonis Fairmaire, 1884.

Brief redescription

Relatively variable in size. Length 4.5–7.3 mm. Habitus consistently bicolored: pronotum black, elytra reddish brown.

Head. – Transverse. Clypeus subrectilinear to slightly concave medially, then strongly sinuate toward the antero-internal eye margins; small horn present in both sexes, contiguous with anterior margin. Labrum deeply emarginate. Eyes reduced, reniform. Mentum with narrow anteromedian depression. Gula convex. Cephalic punctation scale-like with contiguous setiferous granules.

Pronotum. – Transverse, fully bordered, black, widest at base; basal margin with dense yellowish setae; disc punctation dense and granulate.

Elytra. – Short, punctate-striate; interstriae with rugose background and 3–4 more or less aligned rows of punctures. Juxta-sutural interval depressed behind scutellum, then raised into a carina extending to the apex; often bearing a dark triangular patch nearly reaching apex. Apex subrectilinear in posterior view. Humeral callus distinct. Scutellum black, narrow, elongate.

Genitalia. – Aedeagus with elongate, dorsoventrally curved phallobase, acuminate at apex; parameres short, symmetrical. Endophallus with three serrated endophallites in transverse plates, serrated along convex margin.

Sexual dimorphism. – Males with prominent medial tooth on profemur and an inner notch on protibiae just behind the pollex.

Comparative diagnosis. – Ochodaeus alleonis is easily distinguished from the two other species by its bicolored habitus, reniform eyes (regularly convex and globular in Ochodaeus berytensis and O. gigas), elongate scutellum, and the presence of a small clypeal horn in both sexes. O. gigas also bears a clypeal horn, but it is distinctly more developed and not contiguous with anterior margin. In O. berytensis, the clypeus is unarmed.