Dicranocephalus agilis (Scopoli, 1763)

Ghahari, Hassan, Moulet, Pierre, Linnavuori, Rauno E. & Ostovan, Hadi, 2012, An Annotated Catalog of the Iranian Coreidae, Rhopalidae, and Stenocephalidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomomorpha: Coreoidea), Zootaxa 3519, pp. 1-31 : 24-25

Dicranocephalus agilis (Scopoli, 1763)

Cimex agilis Scopoli, 1763: 126 (as new species); Cimex quinquepunctatus Goeze, 1778: 278 ; Cimex nugax Fabricius, 1781: 366 ; Cimex monilis Geoffroy in Fourcroy, 1785: 203; Cimex geoffroyi Petagna, 1787: 42 ; Cimex multicolor Gmelin, 1790: 2136 ; Cimex nussax Gmelin, 1790: 2173 [lapsus for nugax ]; Cimex celer Gmelin, 1790: 2147 ; Cimex melanochros Gmelin, 1790: 2184 ; Stenocephalus mexicanus Ashmead, 1886: 19 ; Stenocephalus ferganensis Horváth, 1887: 280 ; Stenocephalus crassicornis Horváth, 1887: 279 ; Stenocephalus femoralis Reuter, 1888: 66 ; Stenocephalus agilis var. femoralis Noualhier, 1893: 9 ; Stenocephalus femoratus Puton, 1899: 22 ; Stenocephalus robustus Jakovlev, 1901: 204 ; Stenocephalus brevinotum Lindberg, 1935: 417 ; Dicranocephalus moralesi Wagner, 1950: 145 ; Dicranocephalus africanus Stichel, 1959: 359 ; Dicranocephalus litoralis Linnavuori, 1960: 21 ; Dicranocephalus agilis moralesi Lansbury, 1965: 85 ; Dicranocephalus alticolus Zheng, 1981: 190 ; Dicranocephalus ganziensis Ren, 1990: 354 .

Distribution in Iran. East Azarbaijan ( Baroughi 1978; Modarres Awal 1997a; Ghahari et al. 2010c; Khaghaninia et al. 2010a, 2011; Nikdel et al. 2011), Golestan ( Linnavuori 2007), Guilan ( Seidenstücker 1957), Khorasan ( Modarres Awal 1996a, 2008), Kordestan ( Wagner 1961; Sakenin et al. 2010; Samin et al. 2011), Mazandaran ( Wagner 1968), Sistan & Baluchestan ( Wagner 1968), Tehran ( Linnavuori 2007), northern Iran (no locality cited) ( Lindberg 1938).

General distribution. Euro-Siberian species with a wide distribution in Central Europe, also extending to southern Russia and Middle Asia; known in Mexico ( Dolling 2006).

Comments. On weeds ( Modarres Awal 1996a), and Malva montana (Malvaceae) ( Ghahari et al. 2011). Most Dicranocephalus species feed on Euphorbia sp. ( Euphorbiaceae ), but are known on many other families of plants e.g., Berberidaceae , Cupressaceae , Ericaceae , Pinaceae ( Putshkov 1962; Moulet 1995).

The presence of Dicranocephalus agilis (as D. mexicanus ) in America seems doubtful or it concerns introduced samples.

Note. The synonymies of D. ferganensis (Horváth 1887) , D. alticolus Zheng 1981 , and D. ganziensis Ren 1990 by Moulet (1994a) were not accepted by Tshernova (1996) and considered questionable by Dolling (2006). One can remark that D. femoratus (Puton, 1899) (now considered only a color form), which corresponds to dark-legged samples and living at high altitude in western Europe, is very close to D. ferganensis from Central Asia.