Omobrachyiulus cf. hortensis (Golovatch, 1981)

Fig. 17B, C

Material examined.

Georgia: 3 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀ (ZMUM), Mestia, 1500 m a.s.l., Betula, Rhododendron on moraine, litter and under stones, 5 and 15.IX.1986, SIG leg.; 1 ♂ (SMNG), Mestia, below Chalaadi Glacier, 43.1118°N, 42.7453°E, Abies nordmanniana and various deciduous trees, in leaf litter, 9.VI.2019, H. Reip leg.

Remarks.

The males in these two samples from Mestia differ from both the original description and drawings, and the currently studied material of O. hortensis by certain structural details of the opisthomere (Fig. 17C), viz., presence of a smaller or larger, pointed, anterior process and differently shaped mesal and median parts of the apical outgrowth of the basoposterior process (compare to Fig. 17A); as well as by a stouter, abruptly rather than gradually tapering, promere (Fig. 17B). While these specimens may represent a new, closely related species, we cannot exclude possibly intraspecific variations; the more so that there are no significant differences between the solenomere, the taxonomically most important structure in Julidae, in these two forms (compare s in Fig. 17A and Fig. 17C), while the promere and the anterior process of the opisthomere tend to be the most variable gonopodal structures within the Brachyiulini.