Stachygethes nigerrimus ( Rosenhauer, 1856 )

Audisio, Paolo, Cline, Andrew R., Lasoń, Andrzej, Jelínek, Josef, Sabatelli, Simone & Serri, Sayeh, 2017, New species and records of pollen and sap beetles for Iran (Coleoptera: Kateretidae, Nitidulidae), Zootaxa 4216 (4), pp. 369-383 : 379

Stachygethes nigerrimus ( Rosenhauer, 1856)

Examined material. IRAN: North Khorasan Province, Koppe Mts (= Kopet Dag), Valley above the village of Mareshk , 36°49'N 59°33'E, 1750 m, 7.VI.2014, leg. P. Audisio, by sweeping, 1 female ( CAR).

This species, associated as larva with Marrubium spp. ( Lamiaceae ), typically with the common M. vulgare L., was only known thus far from Western Mediterranean countries: i.e. southern France, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and North Africa (eastwards to Tunisia) ( Easton 1956; Audisio 1988a, 1993b; Jelínek & Audisio 2007). This taxon was previously mentioned also from Israel and Jordan by Jelínek (1965), but subsequent analyses ( Audisio 1988a) demonstrated that these records were the closely related Middle East endemic Stachygethes syriacus (C. Brisout de Barneville, 1872) . The actual presence of the true S. nigerrimus in NE Iran is quite surprising, but exhibits a biogeographic parallelism with other nitidulid species known to share more or less disjunct North-African and W Mediterranean/Iranian or Middle East distributions, e.g. Lamiogethes leati ( Easton, 1956) , Clypeogethes elongatus ( Rosenhauer, 1856) , or Afrogethes schilskyi discussed above ( Easton 1956; Audisio 1993a, b; Audisio et al. 2000). Also, some sister species pairs are known to occur in W Mediterranean areas and the Near East respectively, e.g., Xenostrongylus lateralis Chevrolat, 1861 + X. levantinus Audisio & Jelínek, 2001 ( Audisio et al. 2001a) , Oxystrongylus ovulum ( Fairmaire, 1875) + O. sanctissimus ( Roubal, 1927) , Xerogethes brisouti ( Reitter, 1871) + X. kraatzi ( Reitter, 1871) , and Epuraea latipes Grouvelle, 1896 + E. sutcuimamun Avgın, Lasoń & Audisio, 2012 . These distributions are likely associated with past (middle and late Pleistocenic) presence of these taxa or of recent common ancestors throughout previously more homogeneous biota present from eastern North Africa to the neighboring countries of Middle East ( Avgin et al. 2012). New record for the Iranian and the Asiatic fauna.