Ablattaria laevigata (Fabricius, 1775)

Qubaiova, Jarin, Ruzicka, Jan & Sipkova, Hana, 2015, Taxonomic revision of genus Ablattaria Reitter (Coleoptera, Silphidae) using geometric morphometrics, ZooKeys 477, pp. 79-142 : 86-89

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Silphidae

Ablattaria laevigata (Fabricius, 1775) Figs 4, 5-8, 9-11, 15, 18, 21, 22, 26, 28-31

Silpha laevigata Fabricius 1775: 74 (with reference to Geoffroy (1762)) (type locality: Europe ["Habitat in sylvis Europae"]).

Silpha polita Sulzer 1776: 28 (with reference to Geoffroy (1762)) (type locality: “Schweiz” [Switzerland]; preoccupied, not Fueßli 1775: 6 (junior primary homonym)) (as junior synonym of Ablattaria laevigata laevigata by Reitter 1884: 75, confirmed by Schawaller 1979: 5).

Silpha gibba Brullé 1832: 162 (type locality: “Arcadie” [= Greece: Peloponnese Peninsula, Arcadia region]) (as junior synonym of Ablattaria laevigata by Nikolaev and Kozminykh 2002: 70).

Ablattaria laevigata gibba : Schawaller 1979: 5.

Ablattaria gibba var. costulata Portevin 1926: 25 (type locality: Istanbul [ca. 41°01'N, 28°57'E]) (as junior synonym of Ablattaria laevigata gibba by Schawaller 1979: 5).

Ablattaria gibba var. distinguenda Portevin 1926: 25 (type locality not stated) (as junior synonym of Ablattaria laevigata gibba by Schawaller 1979: 5).

Ablattaria gibba var. punctata Portevin 1926: 26 (type locality not stated) (as junior synonym of Ablattaria laevigata gibba by Schawaller 1979: 5).

Ablattaria laevigata var. meridionalis Ganglbauer 1899: 191 (type locality: "Illirien, Dalmatien, Südungarn und Griechenland" [= Illiria, Dalmatia, southern Hungary and Greece], syn. n.

Ablattaria laevigata meridionalis : Schawaller 1979: 5.

Type material examined.

Lectotype female of Silpha laevigata (here designated) (ZMUC, Collection of Ove Ramel Sehested and Niels Tønder Lund, the "Copenhagen collection" [= coll. S & TL]) (Figs 28-29), pinned, labelled: "Lectotype / Silpha / laevigata / Fabricius, 1775 / Jan Růžička des. 2012 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata / (Fabricius, 1775) / Jan Růžička det. 20 [p] 12 [hw] // zmuc / 00021148 [p, this and subsequent numbers below are associated with photodocumentation]". Paralectotypes: 1 male (ZMUC, coll. S & TL), pinned, labelled "Paralectotype / Silpha / laevigata / Fabricius, 1775 / Jan Růžička des. 2012 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata / (Fabricius, 1775) / Jan Růžička det. 20 [p] 12 [hw] // zmuc / 00021149 [p]"; 1 male and 1 female (ZMUC, Fabricius personal collection, the "Kiel collection"), pinned, identical labels as previous except for "laeviga / ta [hw, Fabricius’s handwriting, label pinned in box left to the first specimen]" and "zmuc00021468 [p]" or "zmuc00021469 [p]"; 1 female of Silpha tyrolensis Laicharting, 1781 (ZMUC, "Kiel collection") (Figs 30-31), pinned, labelled "Paralectotype / Silpha / laevigata / Fabricius, 1775 / Jan Růžička des. 2012 [p, red label] // Silpha / tyrolensis / Laicharting, 1781 / Jan Růžička det. 20 [p] 12 [hw] // zmuc00021467 [p]"; 1 male (BMNH, coll. Banks), pinned, labelled: "HOLO- / TYPE [p, modern round label with thick red margin] // Silpha laevigata [hw] / Fab. Entom. p. [p] 74. n / 10 [hw, double black frame] // Paralectotype / Silpha / laevigata / Fabricius, 1775 / Jan Růžička des. 2012 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata / (Fabricius, 1775) / Jan Růžička det. 20 [p] 12 [hw]".

Lectotype female of Silpha gibba (here designated) (MNHN, coll. generale), labelled: "Type / de Brullé [hw] // TYPE [p, red label] // MUSEUM PARIS / MORÉE / BRULLÉ 4187-33 [p] // Lectotype / Silpha gibba / Brullé, 1832 / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička / des. 2014 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata (Fabricius, 1775) / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička det. 2014 [p]". Paralectotype: 1 male (MNHN, coll. generale), labelled: " gibba Br. [hw] // TYPE [p, red label] // MUSEUM PARIS / MORÉE / BRULLÉ 4187-33 [p] // Paralectotype Silpha gibba / Brullé, 1832 / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička des. 2014 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata (Fabricius, 1775) / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička det. 2014 [p]".

Lectotype female of Ablattaria gibba var. costulata (here designated) (MNHN, coll. Pic), labelled "TURQUIE / Constantinople [= Istanbul] [p] // var. costatula [sic] / m. [hw, Portevin’s handwriting] // TYPE [p, red label] // Muséum Paris / Coll. M. Pic [p] // Lectotype / Ablattaria gibba / var. costulata / Portevin, 1926 / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička / des. 2014 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata (Fabricius, 1775) / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička / det. 2014 [p]".

Lectotype male of Ablattaria gibba var. distinguenda (here designated) (MNHN, coll. Pic), pinned, labelled: " laevigata / var. [hw] // var. distinguenda / m. [hw, Portevin’s handwriting] // TYPE [p, red modern label] // Muséum Paris / Coll. M. Pic [p] // Lectotype / Ablattaria gibba / var. distinguenda / Portevin, 1926 / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička / des. 2014 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata (Fabricius, 1775) / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička det. 2014 [p]".

Lectotype male of Ablattaria gibba var. punctata (here designated) (MNHN, coll. Marmottan) (Fig. 26), pinned, labelled: "Turquie [hw] // TYPE [p, red modern label] // var. punctata / m. [hw, probably Portevin’s handwriting] // Muséum Paris / 1914 / Coll. H. Marmottan [p, modern label] // Lectotype / Ablattaria gibba / var. punctata / Portevin, 1926 / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička / des. 2014 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata (Fabricius, 1775) / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička / det. 2014 [p]". Paralectotype: 1 male, labelled: "MUSEUM PARIS [p] / Turquie / Jejeune 1881 [hw] // TYPE [p, red label] // Paralectotype / Ablattaria gibba var. punctata / Portevin, 1926 / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička des. 2014 [p, red label] // Ablattaria / laevigata (Fabricius, 1775) / J. Qubaiová & J. Růžička det. 2014 [p]".

Additional material examined.

2206 specimens, see Appendix 1.

Diagnostic description.

Total body length 9-19 mm, body matt. Pronotum semi-elliptical, with evenly distributed, homogenous, distinct punctures on whole dorsal surface (Fig. 15). Elytra regularly rounded (more in larger specimens - compare Figs 9-11); with densely and evenly distributed medium-sized, distinct punctures of similar size (Fig. 18), rarely with two very fine, longitudinal lines that are occasionally more visible (Fig. 21). Rarely, individual larger punctures are intermixed, but never in such regular pattern as in Ablattaria arenaria and Ablattaria cribrata .

Remarks.

Both Fabricius (1775) and Sulzer (1776) refer in their descriptions of Silpha laevigata and Silpha polita to Geoffroy (1762: 122, species #8). However, the book of Geoffroy is not consistently binominal and Opinion 1754 ( ICZN 1994) placed it on the Official List of Works in Zoological Nomenclature with only some generic names available. Accordingly, the author of Silpha laevigata is Fabricius and the author of Silpha polita is Sulzer.

In the syntype series of Silpha laevigata from ZMUC and BMNH, consistent with current understanding of Ablattaria laevigata , we also found intermixed a single specimen of Silpha tyrolensis Laicharting, 1781 (in ZMUC, "Kiel collection"; see above for details). This syntype specimen is here considered a paralectotype. We have designated a female from ZMUC, the "Copenhagen collection", as the lectotype to fix this name as currently used.

Ablattaria laevigata is a widely distributed species with regional variation in size and shape between populations (see Geometric morphometrics section below), and also with some variability in punctation of elytra, sometimes with intermixed larger punctures or an impunctate pair of longitudinal lines present on elytra.

There are no distinct differences in the description of Silpha polita to separate it from Ablattaria laevigata , and we believe that this taxon is correctly considered as a junior subjective synonym of Ablattaria laevigata by Reitter (1884) and Schawaller (1979). In our opinion, the variation in body size, proportions and surface sculpturation which led to the description of Silpha gibba and several varieties of Ganglbauer (1899) and Portevin (1926) fall within the infrasubspecific variation of Ablattaria laevigata . We agree with Schawaller (1979), who considered Ablattaria gibba var. costulata , Ablattaria gibba var. distinguenda and Ablattaria gibba var. punctata as junior subjective synonyms of Ablattaria laevigata . Further, we consider Ablattaria laevigata var. meridionalis of Ganglbauer (1899) as a junior subjective synonym of Ablattaria laevigata .

Biology.

Seasonal activity of adults with a peak in April–June (Table 1).

Distribution.

Most of Europe; from the west (Spain to United Kingdom), through all of central and southern Europe, reaching to the east and north of Turkey; Ukraine, southern Russia, Georgia to Armenia (Fig. 32).