Tropimenelytron mirabilis Wunderle 2008

Tropimenelytron mirabilis (EPPELSHEIM, 1884); comb. n. (Fig. 62)

Homalota (Aleuonota) mirabilis EPPELSHEIM, 1884: 13.

Type material examined:

Lectotype  [head damaged, mouthparts and aedeagus dissected prior to present study], here designated: "9. / Kaukas Leder / Berge von Talysch, Lirik / Collect. Eppelsh. / Typus / Lectotypus Homalota mirabilis Eppelsheim desig. V. Assing 2007 / Tropimenelytron mirabilis (Eppelsheim) det. V. Assing 2007 " (NHMW). Paralectotype : " mirabilis Epp., Verh. Naturf. Ver. Brünn Bd. XXII / Caspi.-M.-Gebiet, Leder (Reitter), Liryk. / Collect. Eppelsh. / Typus (NHMW).

Comments:

The original description is based on a male and a female ("in einem Pärchen") from "Lirik im Gebirge von Talysch" (EPPELSHEIM 1884). Both syntypes are males and deposited in the Eppelsheim collection at the NHMW. The smaller specimen was erroneously sexed as a female by Eppelsheim, obviously because it lacks the male secondary sexual characters on the elytra and the abdomen. The larger syntype with fully developed secondary sexual characters is here designated as the lectotype. The species does not refer to Alevonota, but to Tropimenelytron PACE, 1983.

From T. tuberiventris (EPPELSHEIM, 1880), the only other representative of Tropimenelytron in the Western Palaearctic region, the species is distinguished by larger size, longer antennae, a broader head, the much coarser, more defined, and denser puncturation of the forebody, the much less pronounced (i. e. distinctly shorter and less elvated) keels on the male elytra (Fig. 62), and by the larger aedeagus. The modifications of the male abdominal tergites III, IV, and VII are similar to those of T. tuberiventris. Tropimenelytron mirabilis is currently known only from Azerbaijan.