Notoxus hirtus LaFerté-Sénectère, 1849

Telnov, Dmitry & Ghahari, Hassan, 2018, An annotated checklist of the Anthicidae and pediline Pyrochroidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) of Iran, with thirteen new country records, Zootaxa 4497 (4), pp. 451-491 : 485-486

Notoxus hirtus LaFerté-Sénectère, 1849

= Notoxus caucasicus PIC, 1900 syn. nov.

Synonymy and distribution pattern. After studying the holotype of N. caucasicus (MNHN) with published records from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, we came to the conclusion that this species is conspecific with N. hirtus . The northernmost locality for this species is Lake El’ton east of Volgograd in southern Russia (leg. K. Makarov). Interestingly, no records are known for N. hirtus from the South Russian plains from Volgograd towards the Great Сaucasus. Here and in Great Сaucasus and in Daghestan N. hirtus is replaced by N. sareptanus Heberdey, 1936 (23 localities; Telnov, unpublished data). Notoxus hirtus appears again in Transcaucasia where it is known only from Armenia. In contrast, vast steppes east and south of Volgograd toward Сentral Asia ( Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Iran etc.) are inhabited by N. hirtus (over 40 known localities; Telnov, unpublished data) without any record of N. sareptanus known to the authors from this area.

New for the fauna of Iran. New records. IRAN, Semnan Province Shahrdur-Mojen road: 2km SE Tash, 2190m N 36°32’44” E 054°40’ 06’ 24.05.2006, lg. Frisch & Serri (1 specimen MNHB) ; IRAN, Razavi Khorasan Prov. 27km SW Сhanaran: SW Frizi, 1690m (Binalud Mts) N 36°27’38” E 058°56’45” 29.05.2006, lg. Frisch & Serri (1 MNHB) .

Chorotype. Сentralasiatic (5.03 СAS) including Turkey, Сaucasus and Southern Russia.