A faunistic review of darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae; excluding Alleculinae) of Armenia and partly the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan with new records and taxonomic notes

Abstract

The faunistic review of Tenebrionidae (excluding Alleculinae) from Armenia is presented. The work is based on longterm collections of one of the authors and materials from museum collections, deposited in Yerevan (the most of material), St Petersburg and Budapest. In total, 123 species of Tenebrionidae, excluding Alleculinae are reliably known from Armenia and confirmed by material. The checklist contains data on specimens (number of specimens and geographic labels) deposited in the museums. Sometimes we refer to reliable sources with the indicated material. Thus, all data have been verified, and the habitat of each species has been confirmed by collection material. The following seven species are recorded from Armenia for the first time: Hedyphanes laticollis Fischer von Waldheim in Ménétriés, 1832 (the first confirmed record), Palorus orientalis Fleischer, 1900, Tenebrio angustus Zoufal, 1892, Pentaphyllus testaceus (Hellwig, 1792), Corticeus longulus (Gyllenhal, 1827), C. suberis (Lucas, 1846), Myrmechixenus picinus (Aubé, 1850). Four latter species are also new for Transcaucasia. The following four species are recorded for Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (Azerbaijan) for the first time: Aspidocephalus desertus Motschulsky, 1839, Gonocephalum setulosum (Faldermann, 1837), Palorus ratzeburgii (Wissmann, 1848), Cnemeplatia atropos A. Costa, 1847. The following 14 species are excluded from the faunistic list of Armenia because they are not confirmed by collection material: Cnemeplatia atropos, Philhammus cribratellus Reitter, 1901, Lachnogya squamosa Ménétriés, 1848, Leptodes lederi Reitter, 1889, Sternoplax armeniaca (Faldermann, 1837), Lagria atripes Mulsant et Guillebeau, 1855, Blaps scabriuscula scabriuscula Ménétriés, 1832, Neopachypterus serrulatus (Reitter, 1904), Opatrum verrucosum Germar, 1817, Penthicus pinguis pinguis Faldermann, 1836, Sclerum carinatum Baudi di Selve, 1875, Leichenum canaliculatum canaliculatum (Fabricius, 1798), Helops caeruleus stevenii Krynicki, 1834, Uloma culinaris (Linnaeus, 1758). In addition, we presented corrections (we excluded 15 species as a result of synonymy or incorrect distribution data) to the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera, which were made in previous works (before the date of publication in 2020) but omitted in this catalogue. A new synonymy is proposed: Cyphostethe semenovi Bogatchev, 1947 = Cyphostethe jelineki Merkl, 1991, syn. n. The species Pimelia persica Faldermann, 1837 is transferred from the nominotypical subgenus to the subgenus Chaetotoma Motschulsky, 1860. Two species, Tenebrio angustus and Palorus orientalis, are synantropic invaders in Armenia.

Keywords

• tenebrionid beetles
• transcaucasia
• fauna
• new records
• new synonymy
• check-list