Catomus, Allard, 1876

Nabozhenko, M. V. & Tichý, V., 2019, Darkling beetles of the tribe Helopini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) of Jordan, Far Eastern Entomologist 384, pp. 1-9 : 2-3

Catomus (s. str.) acutipennis (Reiche et Saulcy, 1857)

Helops acutipennis Reiche et Saulcy, 1857: 269 (type locality: bank of Jordan River ) .

Catomus laenoides Reitter, 1922: 11 (type locality: Jordan), syn. n.

TYPE MATERIAL. Types of Catomus acutipennis were not found in MNHN

and are probably lost. Four specimens of C. acutipennis from Damascus with cu-

rator’s labels “ Syntype ” are deposited in MNHN, but these specimens don’t belong to the type series, because the type locality of the species is “bank of Jordan River ” .

Holotype of Catomus laenoides (NMB) , male, with labels: “Arabri V.W. Ma’an ”

[ Jordan, Ma’an], “Peyerimnof”, “ Reitter det.”, “ laenoides ”, “ TYPUS ” (press, pink) .

DISTRIBUTION. Western Syria (Allard, 1876, 1877; Seidlitz, 1896; Reitter,

1922), Israel (Reiche, 1861), Jordan (Nabozhenko & Löbl, 2008).

NOTES. Catomus acutipennis distinctly differs from other species of the genus

Catomus Allard, 1876 from the Levantine georgaphic region by the pubescent body.

Reitter’s pubescent species C. laenoides is conspecific to C. acutipennis. Thus, the new synonym is proposed: Helops acutipennis Reiche et Saulcy, 1857 = Catomus laenoides Reitter, 1922 , syn. n.