Paederus pseudobaudii ALEKSANDROV, 1934: 151; nov.syn.

C o m m e n t: According to WILLERS (2001b), the depository and identity of the type material of P. pseudobaudii from "Hengtaohotze" (Heilongjiang) is uncertain, but there is little doubt that it is conspecific with P. gottschei, also because ALEKSANDROV (1934) himself synonymized the species with P. chinensis. The material from Heilongjiang studied by WILLERS (2001b), some of which had previously been identified as P. pseudobaudii, all belonged to P. gottschei.

Paederus gottschei is the most widespread - and probably also the most common - representative of Harpopaederus in the East Palaearctic region, its distribution ranging from the Russian Far East across Northeast China to North and South Korea. For additional records see LI & ZHOU (2007). So far, all the material of Harpopaederus from this region has proved to belong to P. gottschei, making it seem most unlikely that P. pseudobaudii represents a distinct species. In consequence, P. pseudobaudii is formally placed in synonymy with P. gottschei. The distribution of P. gottschei in China is illustrated in Map 1.