Helopelius Reitter, 1922

Nabozhenko, Maxim V., Mpamnaras, Athanasios & Kalaentzis, Konstantinos, 2020, Contribution to the knowledge of Mediterranean lichen-feeding darkling beetles of the genus Stenohelops Reitter, 1922 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), Zootaxa 4896 (2), pp. 292-300 : 293-295

Subgenus Helopelius Reitter, 1922

Type species Stenomax aeneipennis Allard, 1876 , by subsequent designation ( Nabozhenko 2008).

= Stenomaleis Español, 1957 (type species: Stenohelops ardoini Español, 1957 , by the original designation), syn. n.

Taxonomy, nomenclature and synonymy. Español (1957) erected the subgenus Stenomaleis for three species, S. protensulus (Seidlitz, 1895) , S. ardoini Español 1957 (now a junior synonym of S. protensulus according to Lagar & Fresneda (2014)) and S. pyrenaeus (Mulsant, 1854) (type species of the subgenus) on the basis of rugose prothoracic hypomera and glabrous dorsal side of the body, in contrast with other two subgenera with punctured prohypomera, glabrous (s. str.) or pubescent ( Gunarellus ) body. Later, he described S. effeminatus within this subgenus ( Español, 1963). Nabozhenko & Keskin (2009) described two Anatolian species within the genus Gunarus Des Gozis, 1886 , but later transferred these species to the genus Stenohelops within the subgenus Stenomaleis ( Nabozhenko et al. 2016b) . Two species of this subgenus were recently described from Spain ( Lagar and Fresneda, 2014) and China ( Nabozhenko & Ando 2018) respectively.

The second two authors of this paper collected Helopelius aeneipennis (type species of the genus Helopelius ) in Rhodes Island, Greece. After examination of type and non-type material we found, that this species, Helopelius disgregus Reitter, 1922 and Stenohelops gayirbegi ( Nabozhenko & Keskin, 2009) are conspecific. A systematic position of two Anatolian species S. gayirbegi and S. korkutelensis ( Nabozhenko & Keskin, 2009) within the subgenus Stenomaleis of the genus Stenohelops has been argued earlier ( Nabozhenko et al., 2016a). Respectively, the genus Helopelius Reitter, 1922 and the subgenus Stenomaleis are congeneric, but Reitter’s taxon has a priority. Reitter (1922) described Stenohelops and Helopelius in the same work, but the first one was described a little earlier, on the page 22, Teil I, and the latter was indicated on the page 123, Teil II. We conserve the priority of Stenohelops in order to the stability of the nomenclature, guided by the article 23.2 of ICZN (1999). It should be noted, that Allard (1876, 1877) quite correctly compared his “ Stenomax ” aeneipennis with “ Stenomax ” pyrenaeus . So, the following new combination, synonymy and status are proposed: Helopelius Reitter, 1922 , stat. n. (from genus to subgenus) = Stenomaleis Español 1957 , syn. n.; Stenohelops (Helopelius) aeneipennis ( Allard, 1876) , comb. n. = Helopelius disgregus Reitter, 1922 , syn. n., = Gunarus gayirbegi Nabozhenko & Keskin, 2009 , syn. n. As a result of this synonymy, the following new combinations (from Helopelius to Stenohelops ) are established for five Western Mediterranean species: Stenohelops (Helopelius) nodifer (Kraatz, 1880) , comb. n.; Stenohelops (Helopelius) otini ( Antoine, 1949) , comb. n.; Stenohelops (Helopelius) subsinuatus ( Antoine, 1951) , comb. n.; Stenohelops (Helopelius) verrucosus (Vauloger de Beaupré, 1900) , comb. n.; Stenohelops (Helopelius) zaianus ( Antoine, 1949) , comb. n.

The mentioned five species from North Africa and Portugal are different from other Helopelius by acute and detached apex of apical piece of aedeagus. Antoine (1949) specially noted this character and it was the reason to include these species in a genus other than Stenohelops . The form of apex of aedeagus is diverse within the subgenus Helopelius and cannot be used in the super-species taxonomy of this subgenus and generally of the genus Stenohelops : acute and detached (most of North African—Portuguese species), narrowly rounded and weakly detached (eastern Mediterranean species), acute and not detached (Iberian S. protensulus ), widely rounded (European, North African and Chinese species). Here we interpret five mentioned North African species ( Helopelius sensu Antoine (1949)) as the verrucosus species-group within the subgenus Helopelius .

Distribution of the subgenus. Eastern Mediterranean region: Western Anatolia; Dodecanese islands (Rhodes). Western Mediterranean region: Maghreb ( Algeria, Morocco); Iberian Peninsula; Southern France (Eastern Pyrenees, Montagne Noire) ( Soldati 1995). China (Sichuan Prov.) ( Nabozhenko & Ando 2018).

Bionomics. The below studied species feed on foliose lichens associated with different trees. Stenohelops aeneipennis was found in Turkey at night, mainly on old Juniperus excelsa ; only two specimens were collected in alpine zone of Akdağ ridge (Denizli Prov., Babadag Distr.) under stone, but near the slopes were cut down Juniperus and Quercus . The species was collected in Rhodes at night near Quercus coccifera and an old trunk of Q. macrolepis . Stenohelops korkutelensis feeds on lichens exclusively on trunks of old Quercus coccifera . The species Stenohelops verrucosus was collected on trunks of old Tamarix sp. in Agadir ( Morocco). Stenohelops otini occurs in several localities in Middle Atlas with forests of Cedrus atlantica and probably is associated with these trees. Stenohelops pyrenaeus (Mulsant, 1854) is also arboreal species and was collected under the bark of Pinus nigra salzmannii , Quercus ilex , Castanea sp. and Populus sp. ( Soldati 1995). Stenohelops barcinensis Lagar & Fresneda was collected in rotten stump of figs Ficus carica ( Lagar & Fresneda, 2014) .