Anisodactylus virens Dejean, 1829: 135

Serrano, José, 2022, Designation of types of European Harpalini (Coleoptera: Carabidae) described by Dejean and deposited in the MNHN, Paris, Zootaxa 5141 (5), pp. 484-500 : 486

Anisodactylus virens Dejean, 1829: 135 .

The specimen hereby designated as lectotype is a male, labeled “ virens var. distinctus Sol. Gal. merid. D.”, “Solier”, “ex-Museo Chaudoir” and “ Lectotype of Anisodactlus virens Dejean, 1829 desig. by J. Serrano ” .

Concerning this species Dejean (1829) stated that: Il se trouve assez communément dans le midi de la France, et il m’a été envoyé par M. Solier. Lately, Dejean (1831) briefly described a new variety named distinctus by Solier don’t la coleur est presque entièrement noire. This name is nowadays considered a synonym of Anisodactylus virens virens ( Kataev & Wrase, 2017a) . For this reason, the specimen has been designed as lectotype. It is dorsally darkcoloured; there are other beetles in the collection (possibly paralectotypes) with various degrees of green metallic lustre. Variation in dorsal colouration is common in carabids living in salty places. Its characteristics match those of the original description and the current concept of the species.

A. virens is currently included in the subgenus Hexatrichus Tschitschérine, 1898 , that is characterized by a labrum with many setae at each side, the trifid internal spur of protibia and sexual differences in the anterior leg. The subgenus includes two species which are very similar but can be distinguished by the shape of pronotum and median lobe of aedeagus (e.g., Jeannel, 1942, p. 604).

A. virens is polytypic; the nominal subspecies occupies South France, North Italy and the Iberian Peninsula whereas the subspecies A. virens winthemi Dejean, 1831 inhabits Egypt, Sicily, NW Afrique, Canary Islands ( Wrase, 2009) and Madeira. Bedel (1898) and Antoine (1959) described the characteristics of this last subspecies; both authors noted that dorsal colouration is variable, and in Algeria and Maroc is more greenish. These observations are interesting as this subspecies was established according to its dark (almost black) dorsal colouration and geographic origin ( Egypt).