Blaps subalpina Ménétriés, 1832

Nabozhenko, Maxim V., Chigray, Ivan A., Ntatsopoulos, Konstantinos & Papadopoulou, Anna, 2022, A key to Russian and Eastern European species of Blaps Fabricius, 1775 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Blaptinae) with the description of a new species from the North Caucasus supported by morphological and molecular data, Zootaxa 5116 (2), pp. 267-291 : 286

Blaps subalpina Ménétriés, 1832 stat. resurr.

( Figs 10 , 23C, D )

This species was described from fortress Groznaya (now Groznyi city, Chechen Republic, Russia) or its vast surroundings; type locality: “Caucase, près de Grosnaïa”; the lectotype (ZIN) was designated and studied by Abdurakhmanov & Nabozhenko (2011). Since Allard (1880, 1882), many authors have interpreted this name as a subspecies of Blaps lethifera based on its smooth elytra. Abdurakhmanov & Nabozhenko (2011) interpreted this taxon as a subspecies of Blaps scabriuscula Ménétriés, 1832 and proposed the synonymy Blaps subalpina = Blaps montana Motschulsky, 1839 . In fact, B. subalpina is a separate species (not subspecies), which differs from B. verrucosa (= B. montana ) by the shape of the narrow pronotum, narrowed to apical margin, smooth elytra, little wider mucro in males and the absence of the mucro in females. In addition, both species differ in their bionomics. Blaps verrucosa is cavernicolous species, which inhabits caves, niches and deep cracks in the rocks. High mountain populations (usually more or strongly rugose) of B. verrucosa prefer wet meadow mountain habitats with rocks, while lower mountain Transcaucasian populations (for example, in Gobustan desert) occur in rocks or clusters of huge boulders. Blaps subalpina inhabits xerophytic mountain steppes and slopes only on the North Caucasus (Dagestan, Chechnya) and can often be found in phrygana-like steppes at the foot of Astragalus spp. (milkvetches; Fabaceae ), Stipa spp. (feather grasses; Poaceae ) and in rodents burrows. These two species are allopatric in natural non-transformed landscapes. However, both species tend to a synanthropic lifestyle and are sometimes sympatric in ruins of abandoned mountain villages in Dagestan and Chechnya.

Blaps verrucosa is a species demonstrating great morphological variation. High mountain populations are strongly rugose and slender ( Fig. 23B ), while almost smooth (but with coarse elytral punctation) specimens have been found in subdesert Gobustan populations around Baku, Azerbaijan ( Fig. 23A ).

Given that the species status of Blaps subalpina is also corroborated by molecular data ( Fig. 22 ) (at least for specimens from Dagestan), the species rank for this taxon is resurrected.

Figures

FIGURE 10. B. subalpina, habitus. A, B = ♂; C = ♀; D = prothoracic hypomeron; A, C = dorsal view; B = ventral view.

FIGURE 22. ML phylogenetic tree reconstruction of Blaps species from the Northern Caucasus in IQ-TREE. Numbers above branches represent bootstrap support values (values <50% and the ones corresponding to short intraspecific branches are omitted).

FIGURE 23. Blaps spp., habitus. A = non-rugose male of B. verrucosa from Baku, Azerbaijan, (the type locality of B. scabriuscula) ZM MSU; B = rugose male of B. verrucosa from Georgia (Kazbegi), ZIN; C = lectotype labels of B. subalpina, D = lectotype of B. subalpina, male (ZIN); E = lectotype labels of B. pterotapha; F = lectotype of B. pterotapha, female (ZIN).