Paranothrotes tenuicornis Mistshenko, 1951

(Figs. 59, 447, 454, 456, 495–496, 842)

Paranothrotes tenuicornis tenuicornis sp. et subsp. nov.: Mistshenko 1951: 520.

Paranothrotes tenuicornis tenuicornis Mistshenko, 1951: Bey-Bienko & Mistshenko 1951: 345; Mirzayans 1959: 16; Shumakov 1963: 56; Presa & Garcia 1983: 26; Otte 1994: 187.

Paranothrotes tenuicornis sordidus subsp. nov: Mistshenko 1951: 520. syn. nov.

Paranothrotes tenuicornis sordidus Mistshenko, 1951: Bey-Bienko & Mistshenko 1951: 345; Mirzayans 1959: 16; Shumakov 1963: 56; Presa & Garcia 1983: 26; Otte 1994: 186.

Nocaropsis iranicus n. sp.: Ramme 1951: 289. syn. nov.

Nocaropsis iranicus Ramme, 1951: Presa & Garcia 1983: 18; Otte 1994: 175.

Paranothrotes iranicus (Ramme, 1951): Shumakov 1963: 54; Otte 1994: 186; Hodjat 2012: 267.

Paranothrotes rammei nom. nov.: Özdikmen 2010: 819, unnecessary, invalid name.

Paranothrotes rammei Ozdikmen, 2010: Hodjat 2012: 267.

Paranothrotes tenuicornis Mistshenko, 1951: Hodjat 2012: 267

Type locality. Iran, Elbrus Mts. Holotype: male (ZIN).

Material examined. IRAN: Persia, Elburs, 10.6.1931, 1♂ (Holotype), 12.6.1931, 1♀ (Allotype), 15.5– 12.7.1931, 11♂, 1♀ (Paratypes) (leg. Predtetshensky); Iran, Tar, 10- 13.8.1948, 1♂, 7♀ (ZIN) ; Persia, Teheran, 12.7.1931, 1♂ (Holotype of Paranothrotes tenuicornis sordidus) , 15.5.1931, 1♀ (Allotype of Paranothrotes tenuicornis sordidus) (leg. Predtetshensky) (ZIN); Elburs, Poin Schakuh, Funke, 1♂ (Holotype of Nocaropsis iranicus) (det. Ramme as Nocaropsis persica) (NMW) ; Iran, [Tehran], Tar-see, 11.9.1949, 2♀ (Österr-Iran exped, 1950) (NMW) ; Persia, Elburs, 10.6.1931, 1♂ (Paratype of P. tenuicornis tenuicornis) (leg. Predtetshensky) (NHMUK) .

Distribution. N. Iran: Tehran, Mazandaran provinces (Fig. 842).

Remarks. Mistshenko (1951a) and Bey-Bienko & Mistshenko (1951) distinguished P. tenuicornis sordidus from the nominotypical subspecies by the female hind tibia with blue-black inner surface (red or reddish in P. t. tenucornis) and the male hind femur with densely serrated dorsal margin (sparse in P. t. tenucornis). The coloration of the hind tibia in male is variable from black to dark red (black in the holotype), in female from red to blue (reddish in allotype) or bluish-red. In the Tar population (Tar lake near to east of Tehran) of Iran some females have bluish tibia, some others bluish proximal part turning to red apically and some with reddish without blue tibia. Besides some male paratypes of P. t. tenuicornis have hind femur with dense teeth on the dorsal margin like in the holotype of P. t. sordidus . Because of these variations P. t. sordidus is undoubtedly a synonym of the nominotypical subspecies.

As it is the case in many taxa described by Mistshenko (1951a), Mistshenko (in Bey-Bienko & Mistshenko 1951) and Ramme (1951) this species was also described in the same year by Ramme with the name Nocaropsis iranicus has to be considered its synonym.

On the other hand this species is closely related to P. demawendi Ramme. They are sister species or maybe subspecies of the same species. I think a more detailed field study is needed to clarify this relationship according to their distribution.

Ramme labelled the holotype of Nocaropsis iranicus as “ Nocaropsis persica Rme ”, but he used the species name “ iranicus ” instead of “ persica ” in his publication (Ramme, 1951: 289), however he listed the same species as “ Nocaropsis persicus n. sp. ” on the page 279.

Özdikmen (2010) proposed a nomen novum, Paranothrotes rammei, for Paranothrotes iranicus (Ramme, 1951), because of his assumption of its homonymy with “ Paranothrotes iranicus (Ramme, 1939) ”, but Ramme (1939) did not describe any pamphagid species namely “ iranicus ” or “ Tropidauchen iranicus ” in 1939. According to Özdikmen (2010) “ Shumakov (1963) [in Horae Soc. Entomol. Union. Sov., 49: 54] transferred Tropidauchen iranicus Ramme, 1939 to the genus Paranothrotes Mistshenko, 1951 as the combination Paranothrotes iranicus (Ramme, 1939) ”. However, Shumakov (1963) did not record any pamphagid taxon as “ Paranothrotes iranicus (Ramme, 1939) ” or “ Tropidauchen iranicus Ramme, 1939 ”.

There is only one taxon with the name “ iranicus ” in the genus Paranothrotes described by Ramme in 1951 as Nocaropsis iranicus Ramme, 1951 . The genus Nocaropsis Ramme, 1951 was considered a synonym of Paranothrotes Mistshenko, 1951 for the first time by Bey-Bienko (1957: 1701). Then, Shumakov (1963: 54) reported Paranothrotes iranicus (Ramme, 1951) with the citation of Ramme (1951). Although Özdikmen (2010) cited the papers of Ramme (1939, 1951) and Shumakov (1963) he surprisingly proposed a homonym name after an imaginary taxon name “ Paranothrotes iranicus (Ramme, 1939) ”. On the other hand Werner (1939) described Tropidouchen iranicum Werner, 1939, which is synonymized with Saxetania cultricolle herein. But this species was never transfered to another genus until now and this species is definitely not a Paranothrotes . Because of this pointless taxonomic action the generated name Paranothrotes rammei Özdikmen, 2010 is an unnecessary and invalid name (ICZN, Article 54.2).