Malachius australis Mulsant & Rey, 1867

Švihla, Vladimír & Mifsud, David, 2006, Annotated review of the Cantharidae and Malachiidae (Coleoptera) of the Maltese Islands, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 46, pp. 89-105 : 100

Malachius australis Mulsant & Rey, 1867

Malachius australis Mulsant & Rey, 1867: 93 . Malachius lusitanicus Erichson, 1840 s. lat.: GREINER (1937): 109.

Material examined. MALTA: 14 exs. ( DMZM, NMPC): Marsa, Ghammieri, 17.iv.2006, on Phalaris canariensis (Poaceae) , leg. D. Mifsud; 3 exs. ( DMZM): same data but 2.v.2006.

Distribution. France, Italy (including Sicily) (PARDO 1960, AUDISIO et al. 1995), Malta.

Comments. Malachius australis represents a new record for the Maltese Islands. GREINER (1937) considered M. australis as an aberration of M. lusitanicus Erichson, 1840 sensu lato and reported it from Malta as such, but not as ‘ab. australis ’ (only France is mentioned). This distributional data was repeated by PLATA & SANTIAGO (1987) but not by PLATA & SANTIAGO (1990). The occurrence of M. lusitanicus in the Maltese Islands is highly improbable, because M. lusitanicus and M. australis are vicarious and not known from the same areas.