Notes on the subspecies of Plagionotus arcuatus (Linnaeus, 1758) with description of a new subspecies from Iran (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) Author Królik, Roman 0000-0001-5499-8193 ul. Mickiewicza 8, 46 - 200 Kluczbork, Poland. https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 5499 - 8193 Author Kruszelnicki, Lech 0000-0002-4360-2031 ul. Władysława Jagiełły 7 c / 45, 41 - 106 Siemianowice Śląskie, Poland. https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 4360 - 2031 Author Lasoń, Andrzej 0000-0003-2331-3459 ul. Wiejska 4 B / 85, 15 - 352 Białystok, Poland. https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0003 - 2331 - 3459 Author Walczak, Marcin Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Bankowa 9, 40 - 007 Katowice, Poland. text Zootaxa 2021 2021-03-16 4942 4 558 568 journal article 7584 10.11646/zootaxa.4942.4.4 8012ecbf-5506-404d-82cc-28d2147b3180 1175-5326 4612718 43CED03D-394D-43B4-844B-F7F511513B8F Plagionotus arcuatus arcuatus (Linnaeus, 1758) ( Figs. 1.A–B ) Callidium lunatus Fabricius, 1782 Clytus salicis Schrank, 1798 Plagyonotus reichei J. Thomson, 1861 Clytus apicalis Hampe, 1863 Plagionotus stauropolibus Pic, 1915 Plagionotus martialis Pic, 1918 Plagionotus buyssoni Dauphin, 1924 Plagionotus pagnioni Pic, 1925 Plagionotus milliati Pic, 1934 Plagionotus interrupteconnatus G. Schmidt, 1951 Plagionotus plavilstshikovi G. Schmidt, 1951 Plagionotus arcuatus tastani Özdikmen, Atak & Uçkan, 2017 syn. nov. The recently described P. arcuatus tastani ( Özdikmen, Atak & Uçkan 2017 ) does not, in our opinion, warrant subspecific status. According with the authors in the original description: “It is characterized by poor developed transverse stripes behind the middle of elytra especially. Antemedian band of elytra usually ( 9 males and 11 females of 30 specimens ) is more or less complete but sometimes ( 3 males and 7 females of 30 specimens ) is divided into an outer and an inner spots.” These characters not infrequently occur in specimens from different parts of Europe ( Figs. 1.A ). As can be seen from this description these characters are not constant even among the specimens from the typical series. The phrase “erect abdominal setae are not very dense” is rather imprecise and could refer to many specimens of any subspecies of P. arcuatus . The type locality of P. a. tastani Özdikmen, Atak & Uçkan 2017 ( Kocaeli province in Turkey ) lies not very far from the contiguous distribution range of P. a. arcuatus , and it is hard to imagine that the Bosphorus strait constitutes a real barrier to the various subspecies, especially as specimens of this synonymized taxon differ in no way from those caught in the Turkish Strandzha region, close to the frontier with Bulgaria ( Fig. 5 ). Özdikmen & Turgut (2009) , writing about P. arcuatus state that “It distributes mostly in North and West Turkey ”; in our opinion, this information applies to the nominative subspecies.