Lovriciina, Giachino, Pier Mauro, Gueorguiev, Borislav & Vailati, Dante, 2011

Giachino, Pier Mauro, Gueorguiev, Borislav & Vailati, Dante, 2011, A new remarkable subterranean beetle of the Rhodopes: Paralovricia gen. n. beroni sp. n. belonging to Lovriciina new subtribe (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Trechinae, Bembidiini), ZooKeys 117, pp. 59-72 : 66-68

Lovriciina subtrib. n.

Type genus.

Lovricia Pretner, 1979

Diagnosis.

A subtribe characterized by genera that present the following synapomorphic characters: last maxillary palpomeres very long and narrow, basal angles of the pronotum without seta, elytra without discal setiferous punctures, elytral umbilicate series of nine pores in which the main pores are the 2nd, 6th and 9th ones, apical recurrent striole absent and mesotibial apex expanded outward.

Systematic position.

Now the examination of several characters allows us to define better the position of Lovriciina within the subfamily Trechinae (sensu Lorenz 2005). The initial doubt about the attribution of Lovricia to Trechini rather than Bembidiini was given by the strange morphology of the last maxillary palpomeres, which do have neither the typical conical shape of Trechini nor the small and very reduced one of Bembidiini . The examination of the elytral umbilicate series consisting in 9 setiferous pores as in Bembidiini ( Jeannel 1941) can now exclude, with certainty, the belonging of Lovriciina to Trechini , that is characterized instead by a series of 8 umbilicate pores ( Jeannel 1941). The absence, in Lovriciina , of an apical recurrent striole on the elytra, which is present in Bembidiina and Tachyina but lacking in Anillina ( Jeannel 1941), as well as the basal part of the median lobe of the aedeagus, divided into two sub-equal basal lobes, characteristic of Anillina ( Jeannel 1941), allows us to assign Lovriciina near Anillina (sensu Lorenz 2005).

Key of the genera of Lovriciina

Zoogeography.

Analysis, from a historical zoogeographical point of view, of the distribution of the phyletic lineage of Lovriciina (Fig. 13) provides several interesting insights. First we must consider that the currently known distribution, although widely disjoint, ranging from the Dinarides to the Rhodopes and that, as widely discussed for Anillina ( Giachino 2005, 2008, Giachino and Vailati in press), we are handling a group with a likely ancient origin. In this way we must go back at least to the Late Oligocene (29-24 Ma) before finding, in the paleogeographic reconstructions currently available ( Popov et al. 2004), a continuum of land that connects each other Dinarides and Rhodopes allowing a colonization by this phyletic lineage. Conversely, a paleogeographic event that could be placed at the origins of the separation of Paralovricia (on Rhodopes) from a common ancestor, which then enabled a further differentiation of Lovricia and Neolovricia on Dinarides, may be identified in the Early Miocene (20.5-19 Ma) when a strip of lowlands, covered with freshwater lakes and marshes seems to have again divided the Dinarides from Rhodopes ( Popov et al. 2004).