Mylabris (Mylabris) ciliciensis (Escherich, 1899)

Figs. 1 H, 11A–G

Zonabris ciliciensis Escherich, 1899: 106.

Mylabris ciliciensis, Sumakov, 1913: 306; 1915: 21; 1930: 40; Borchmann, 1917: 30; Mader, 1927: 857; Kaszab, 1968a: 445; Özbek & Szaloki, 1998: 29.

Mylabris (Mylabris) ciliciensis, Kuzin, 1954: 354; Bologna, 1979: 153; 2008: 397.

Type locality. “Asia min. (Taurus cilic.) … Gülek” (Escherich, 1899). This locality, the present complete name of which is “Gülek Boğazı”, is in the southern Turkey, Içel province, 50 km North of Tarsus, on the southern slope of the Toros Dağlari.

Type specimens. Escherich (1899) recorded eigth types; they were not examined and probably are preserved at the NHMTR in the Escherich’s collection. At MNHN we examined one specimen with the following labels; “ Syrie ” (white, printed); “ Zonabris Delagrangei n.sp.” (white, hanwritten by M. Pic); “ type ” (red, printed); “ Mylabris ciliciensis Escherich Pardo Alcaide det. 1967” (handwritten by A. Pardo Alcaide). Delagrangei is is a nomen in litteris. At MNHN we also examined one specimen labelled “n.sp. Esch. Vid. Syrie Akbès C.D.1891”, “ var. caroli Pic ”, which is greatly damaged by dermestids. This infraspecific variation is probably a nomen in litteris.

Description. Body length: 10–14.5 mm; setae uniformly black, but mixed golden and black on legs; antennomeres usually dark reddish, rarely completely black, III ca. 1.5 times as long as IV, apical antennomeres evidently progressively widened, XI less than twice as long as wide (Fig. 11 A); pronotum without fore transverse depression; elytral black pattern as in Fig. 11 B: inner basal spot clearly wider than the external one and never extended along the suture to the base, external spot distanced from the elytral margin, and only rarely fused to the inner spot; mesosternum as in Fig. 11 C; male gonoforceps in lateral view clearly curved before the apical lobe (Fig. 11 E), and fused ventrally in basal third (Fig. 11 D); distal hook of aedeagus positioned almost at apex (Fig. 11 F).

Taxonomic remarks. This species is similar to M. variabilis and commonly confused with it, being distinguished from it by the characters listed in the key. The elytral variability is reduced and concerns the possible fragmentation in two spots of the fore black fascia; the inner spot can be more or less approached along the suture to the specular one of the other elytron.

Distribution. Central and southern Turkey.