Harpalus pygmaeus Dejean, 1829: 303

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 : 490

Harpalus pygmaeus Dejean, 1829: 303 .

The specimen here designated as lectotype is a male glued to a white card together with the penis and the abdomen, labelled: “ brunnicornis Sturm Dalmatia” and “ Lectotype of Harpalus pygmaeus Dejean, 1829 desig. by J. Serrano”.

None of the beetles handled by Dejean was found with a label stating “ pygmaeus ” written by Dejean. However, Dejean (1829: 304) after the Latin description of Harpalus pygmaeus wrote in a line DEJ. Cat. p. 14, and in the following line H. Brunnicornis Sturm. Catal. p. 148. Thereafter, Dejean mentioned Dalmatie as one of the many places where H. pygmaeus was found. For this reason, I hereby design the above mentioned specimen as the lectotype of the species. The species is easily recognizable by its small body size, dorsum mat, pronotum posteriorly narrowed and with marked posterior angles, metepisterna long and narrowed, etc. For keys to identify the species see Jeannel (1942), Wrase (2004), Wrase (2011) etc.

It is distributed from Central and Mediterranean Europe to Kazakhstan ( Kataev & Wrase, 2017c).