Lathrobium anophthalmum Fauvel, 1885

Struyve, Tim, 2022, On the soil dwelling Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) of Romania, Belgian Journal of Entomology 127, pp. 1-22 : 21

Lathrobium anophthalmum Fauvel, 1885

MATERIAL EXAMINED. ROMANIA: Eibenthal , 26.III.2019, 44.546°N 22.205°E: 3 females (cStr) + 1 male and 1 female ( HNHM).

COMMENTS. This species was described from “Hongaria & Serbia ” without further details. The type specimen is missing in the collection Fauvel. The description of L. coecum by COIFFAIT (1982) was based on L. anophthalmum Fauvel at that time seen as a synonym, corrected by PACE (1984). For a long time several related species were considered as the same species, also JEANNEL (1922) noted L. anophthalmum as a synonym of L. coecum and mentions the species from Serbia, Banat, Transylvanian alps and Bihor mountains, which have now each their own species.

COIFFAIT (1982) contains a figure of the aedeagus of L. anophthalmum s. str., but those figures are a bit simplified and so difficult to interpretate. PACE (1984) described the subspecies L. anophthalmum stolense with only a figure of the aedeagus as description, type location is Serbia: Stol planina, about 40 km south of our location. The publication does not say where the type is, but it is at least not in Verona, the hometown of Pace. Our individual correspond enough with the drawings. Without a clear difference between the two subspecies no further placement of our material is made.