Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) bosdaghensis Obenberger, 1938

Baiocchi, Daniele, 2015, Taxonomic notes on the genus Anthaxia Eschscholtz, 1829 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Anthaxiini) 1., Zootaxa 3941 (3), pp. 339-357 : 340-343

Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) bosdaghensis Obenberger, 1938

( Figs. 1–8 )

Anthaxia bosdaghensis Obenberger, 1938: 178 –179. Type locality: “Asie Mineure: Monts Bos-Dagh”.

Anthaxia bosdaghensis: Niehuis, 1989: 102 (taxonomy).

Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) bosdaghensis: Richter, 1949: 5 , 49, 72, 245 (monograph); Brandl, 1984: 91 –94, Figs. 1, 4 (description of ♂); Bílý, 1997: 16, 53, 156 (catalogue); Ulay & Tezcan, 1998: 109, 111, 120, Fig. 1 (faunistics); Bílý, 2006: 375 (catalogue); Bellamy, 2008: 1359 (catalogue).

Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) cavazzutii Bílý, 1980: 107 –109, 112, Figs. 1 , 6 , syn. nov. Type locality: “Central Turkey, Pülümur Pass, Tunceli”.

Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) cavazzutii: Brandl, 1984: 91 –94, Fig. 3 (taxonomy); Bílý, 1997: 17, 57, 157 (catalogue); Ulay & Tezcan, 1998: 109, 111, 120, Fig. 1 (faunistics); Bílý, 2006: 375 (catalogue); Bellamy, 2008: 1365 (catalogue).

Type specimens studied. Anthaxia (H.) bosdaghensis : holotype by monotypy (♀, NMPC inv. 2217 - Fig. 1 , original labelling: Fig. 2 ); A. (H.) cavazzutii : holotype by original designation (♂, MCCI - Fig. 5 , original labelling: Fig. 6 ); allotype (♀, MCCI - Fig. 7 , original labelling: Fig. 8 ); 4 paratypes (2♂♂, 2♀♀): “[h] TURCHIA Passo tra KELKIT ed ERZINCAN 24-7-1978 // [p] PARATYPE [h] Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) cavazzutii sp. n. [p] SV. BÍLÝ det. [h] 1979 [red label]“ (1♀ MCCI, 1♂ DBCR); “[h] TURCHIA – CENT. Passo di PÜLÜMÜR (TUNCELI) 1900 m 15-7-1978 L. Cavazzuti // [p] PARATYPE [h] Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) cavazzutii sp. n. [p] SV. BÍLÝ det. [h] 1979 [red label]“ (1♂ MCCI); “[h] TURCHIA – Colle nord di Siran 24-VI-1979 Leg. Cavazzuti // [p] PARATYPE [h] Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) cavazzutii sp. n. [p] SV. BÍLÝ det. [h] 1980 [red label]“ (1♀ MCCI).

Remarks. Obenberger (1938) described Anthaxia (H.) bosdaghensis from a single specimen from the Bos- Dagh Mountains, in northwestern Turkey. The holotype ( Fig. 1 ) is a rather dark and cyanescent female in a good state of preservation, and it is conserved in the NMPC.

At the end of his description, Obenberger mentions the possibility that the male of this species may have green elytra, but this must be intended as a mere speculation, as the female on which he based his description is the only specimen he had actually studied. Indeed, the male of this species remained unknown until its description by Brandl (1984). In his work, Brandl compared the male of A. (H.) bosdaghensis with those of A. (H.) cavazzutii Bílý, 1980 and A. (H.) rossica K. Daniel, 1903 . In fact, a few years before, Bílý (1980) had already described A. (H.) cavazzutii from a series of specimens of both sexes. At that time, the male of A. (H.) bosdaghensis was still unknown, and Bílý compared his new species to A. (H.) rossica .

A few years ago, together with my colleague M. Gigli, I had the opportunity to collect various specimens of A. (H.) bosdaghensis in the Bos-Dagh Mountains, actually in the same area of northwestern Turkey where the material studied by Brandl comes from. I have compared females from this locality with the female holotype of A. (H.) bosdaghensis , but apart a slight chromatic difference, I failed to find any relevant morphological differences.

This same material collected in the Bos-Dagh Mountains, including males, was then compared with the type series of A. (H.) cavazzutii and only very slight individual differences were observed. Comparable differences, especially in the pronotal sculpture, are evident even within the same type series of A. (H.) cavazzutii ( Figs. 3 , 5, 7 ). The serrated inner edge of male metatibiae is also quite variable.

In my opinion, such minor differences are all ascribable to normal intraspecific morphological and chromatic variability, and I thus consider A. (H.) cavazzutii Bílý, 1980 to be conspecific and a junior synonym of A. (H.) bosdaghensis Obenberger, 1938 .

Anthaxia (H.) bosdaghensis and A. (H.) rossica show morphological characters which suggest they could be grouped in a sub-group of their own, within the A. (H.) millefolii (Fabricius, 1801) species-group.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 4. Fig. 1, Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) bosdaghensis Obenberger, 1917, ♀, holotype (NMPC), dorsal aspect, 5.3 mm.; Fig. 2, the same, original labelling; Fig. 3, A. (H.) cavazzutii Bílý, 1979, ♀, paratype (MCCI), dorsal aspect, 4.8 mm.; Fig. 4, the same, original labelling.

FIGURES 5 – 8. Fig. 5, Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) cavazzutii Bílý, 1979, ♂, holotype (MCCI), dorsal aspect, 4.3 mm.; Fig. 6, the same, original labelling; Fig. 7, A. (H.) cavazzutii Bílý, 1979, ♀, allotype (MCCI), dorsal aspect, 3.9 mm.; Fig. 8, the same, original labelling.