Mylabris (Mylabris) kodymi Mařan, 1944

Figs. 1 M, 16A–G

Mylabris kodymi Mařan, 1944: 37; Bologna, 1986: 441. Mylabris (Mylabris) kodymi, Bologna, 1994: 40; 2008: 397. Mylabris kodymi ab. stepaneki Mařan, 1944: 38.

Mylabris kodymi ab. toborskyi Mařan, 1944: 38.

Type locality. “ Ghazi, in vitinitate oppidi Herakléion ” (Mařan, 1944). Ghazi is a village few kilometres southwest of Iraklio, in Crete Island (Greece). The Ghazi area is now greatly urbanized and disturbed and few residual natural habitats are still present.

Type specimens. Mařan (1944) indicated 33 Types, 25 of them belonging to the nominate form and those remaining belonging to two variations of elytral colour (two of which from “Sphakia”). Holotype and paratypes were examined at NMPC, and one paratype, labeled “Ghazi, 1934” at MAB.

Description. Body length: 10.5–19.5 mm; setae only black, but mixed golden and black on legs; antennae uniformly black, antennomere III ca. 1.5 times as long as IV, apical antennomeres only slightly widened, XI more than twice as long as wide (Fig. 16 A); pronotum without fore transverse depression; elytral black pattern (Fig. 16 B) with two basal rounded spots, similar in size, and one middle fascia strongly sinuose, incomplete on both sides, the apical black fascia very wide, extended on ca. 20% of the whole elytral surface; mesosternum as in Fig. 16 C; male gonoforceps in lateral view slender and only slightly curved before the apical lobe (Fig. 16 E), fused ventrally in basal third (Fig. 16 D); aedeagal distal hook positioned almost at apex and clearly distanced from the proximal one (Fig. 16 F).

Taxonomic remarks. This species has an elytral black pattern very similar to that of M. variabilis Sicilian populations (Italy). It differs from these populations in the following characters: antennae only slightly widened in last segments, XI more than twice as long as wide; elytral two basal spots similar in size, and the apical fascia slightly wider; aedeagal proximal hook relatively far from the distal one compared to that of M. variabilis. M. kodymi consistently differs from M. quadripunctata and M. emiliae, to which it was compared by Mařan (1944), because of male genitalia structure (both aedeagus and gonoferceps). The validity of the species was confirmed by preliminary molecular data using the gene marker COI (Pan et al., unpublished).

Distribution. Endemic to Crete Island (Greece).