Pterostichus (Feronidius) incommodus SCHAUM 1858

Guéorguiev, B., 2011, New and interesting records of Carabid Beetles from South-East Europe, South-West and Central Asia, with taxonomic notes on Pterostichini and Zabrini (Coleoptera, Carabidae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 43 (1), pp. 501-547 : 505-506

Pterostichus (Feronidius) incommodus SCHAUM 1858

Pterostichus (Steropus) incommodus SCHAUM 1858: 470

Pterostichus serbicus APFELBECK 1899: 290 , syn. nov.

Pterostichus (Pterostichus) serbicus var. unistriatus APFLEBECK 1904: 265

Platysma ( Pterostichus ) serbicum var. karageorgii LUTSCHNIK 1915: 29

Pterostichus serbicus APFELBECK 1899

T y p e m a t e r i a l 1, 1 syntypes, labelled: "AK-Palanka Suha plan." [typeset white label] / " serbicus det. Apflb." [white label, " serbicus " handwritten and red underlined, remaining typeset inscription] / "Collectie C. & O. Vogt Acq. 1960" [typeset white label] (ZMAN).

T y p e l o c a l i t y."AkPalankainSerbien(Hilf)".

O t h e r m a t e r i a l e x m a i n e d. BULGARIA. Vitosha Mt., around Dragalevtsi Village , 4.IV.1906, 1 ( NMNHS) ; Lozenska Planina Mt., Germanski Monastery , 20.VII.1911, 1 ( NMNHS) ; " Bulgaria, Stara Planina, Jskrec 12.X.1963 leg. R. Bielawski", 1 ( MIZ) ; Sofia District, Dragomansko blato Marsh , 630 m, 22.VII-3.IV.2004, soil traps, 1, 2, leg. E. Migliaccio ( NMNHS) . CROATIA. " Dalmatia ", 2 s. ( ZMAN) . HUNGARY. " Umgb. B-Pest Diener", 1 ( NMNHS) . KOSOVO. " Novipazar: Banjska " / "Akad. Balk. Exp. Csiki 1916", 1 s. ( HNHM) ; " Albania Ipek " / "Akad. Balk. Exp. Csiki 1917", 1 s. ( HNHM) . ROMANIA. "Biharfüred Hungaria", 1 ( MIZ) ; " Mts. Bihar Hungaria ", 2, 1 ( MIZ) . SERBIA. "Fruška Gora Syrmien.", 1 ( MIZ) ; " Serbien Paracin 1918 Dr. Maertens ", 2 s. ( MNHUB) ; " Jugoslavia Nis, 1957 III. " / "legit dr. Lenczy", 18 s. ( HNHM) ; " Jugoslavia Nis, 1957 IV. " / "legit dr. Lenczy", 17 s. ( HNHM) . SLOVAKIA. " Presb. Com. V. Zoufal.", 1 ( ZMAN) .

P. serbicus was defined by APFELBECK (1899, 1904) on the ground that it is distinct from both P. melas (CREUTZER 1799) and P. hungaricus (DEJEAN 1828) . At the same time, the author did not compare the new form with P. incommodus . Characters for the separation of P. serbicus from the other two species were size, shape and proportion of body, as well as pronotum with characteristic shape and presence of shallow and short basal impressions. So far, records for this species were noted only for Serbia (data summarized by ĆURČIĆ et al. 2007: 249, 755) and Bulgaria (GUÉORGUIEV & MUILWYJK 2000). On the other hand, faunistic data for P. incommodus from the Balkans were cited for Kosovo ( CSIKI 1940: 216; ĆURČIĆ et al. 2007: 247, 751), Bulgaria (HIEKE & WRASE 1988) and Serbia ( GUÉORGUIEV 2008).

However, the study of material originally identified as P. incommodus or P. serbicus as well as undetermined material established suspicion about the identity of the latter one. Study of the genitalia of male syntype of P. serbicus and genitalia of specimens of P. incommodus from Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria demonstrated that the structure of the aedeagus and shape of the left parameres in all samples are identical and that both taxa in question represent single species. Main character that was used to distinguish these forms i.e. number of basal impressions of the pronotum ( SCHATZMAYR 1942) is irrelevant. For example, two of the three specimens from Dragomansko blato Marsh have clear, moderately impressed outer impression. However, the third specimen has no outer impression. Both syntypes of P. serbicus have distinct inner basal impression as well as shallow but distinct outer basal one at each side of pronotum. Variation karageorgeii (LUTSCHNIK), replacement name for variation unistriatus APFELBECK, was defined for a local form of P. serbicus without outer basal impressions ( APFELBECK 1904). This form was described from Novi Pazar, a place situated very close to the first known citation of P. incommodus from the Balkan Peninsula ( CSIKI 1940: 216). On the other hand, HŮRKA (1996: 284) has noted that sometimes specimens from Moravia and Slovakia have "vague and very shallow" second basal impression at each side of the pronotum. Besides that the number of the basal impression and the expression of outer ones vary, variability exist too in the punctuation of the inner impressions. Such penotypic variances have intra-specific character that not allows formation of geographical races or vicariant species. This conclusion is supported from lack of any appreciable differences in the morphology of the male genitalia.

P. incommodus is a rare species with Balkan - Pannonian distribution which in the Balkan Peninsula occurs mainly at lowlands in the basins of the big rivers of Danube, Sava and Morava. First records of P. incommodus from Croatia and Romania.