Plagionotus arcuatus arcuatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

(Figs. 1.A–B)

Callidium lunatus Fabricius, 1782

Clytus salicis Schrank, 1798

Plagyonotus reichei J. Thomson, 1861

Clytus apicalis Hampe, 1863

Plagionotus stauropolibus Pic, 1915

Plagionotus martialis Pic, 1918

Plagionotus buyssoni Dauphin, 1924

Plagionotus pagnioni Pic, 1925

Plagionotus milliati Pic, 1934

Plagionotus interrupteconnatus G. Schmidt, 1951

Plagionotus plavilstshikovi G. Schmidt, 1951

Plagionotus arcuatus tastani Özdikmen, Atak & Uçkan, 2017 syn. nov.

The recently described P. arcuatus tastani (Özdikmen, Atak & Uçkan 2017) does not, in our opinion, warrant subspecific status. According with the authors in the original description: “It is characterized by poor developed transverse stripes behind the middle of elytra especially. Antemedian band of elytra usually (9 males and 11 females of 30 specimens) is more or less complete but sometimes (3 males and 7 females of 30 specimens) is divided into an outer and an inner spots.” These characters not infrequently occur in specimens from different parts of Europe (Figs. 1.A). As can be seen from this description these characters are not constant even among the specimens from the typical series. The phrase “erect abdominal setae are not very dense” is rather imprecise and could refer to many specimens of any subspecies of P. arcuatus . The type locality of P. a. tastani Özdikmen, Atak & Uçkan 2017 (Kocaeli province in Turkey) lies not very far from the contiguous distribution range of P. a. arcuatus, and it is hard to imagine that the Bosphorus strait constitutes a real barrier to the various subspecies, especially as specimens of this synonymized taxon differ in no way from those caught in the Turkish Strandzha region, close to the frontier with Bulgaria (Fig. 5). Özdikmen & Turgut (2009), writing about P. arcuatus state that “It distributes mostly in North and West Turkey ”; in our opinion, this information applies to the nominative subspecies.