Studies of tiger beetles. CLXXVI. The sicilian Lophyra populations (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae)

Biogeographia vol. XXX - 2011 (Pubblicato il 23 dicembre 2011) La Biogeografia de/la Sicilia Studies of tiger beetles. CLXXVI. The sicilian Lop/Jym populations (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae) FABIO CASSOLA via Z? Ybmassucci 12/20, 00144 Roma (Italy); e-mail.-fizbz'oca5so[a@aZz'ce.it Key words: Cicindelidae, Sicily, Lop/Jynz, possibly diflercnt species. SUMMARY Two dificerent “forms” (szzrdea and circumflexa) of a Mediterranean species, Lop/ayraflexuosa, apparently coexist in Sicily without any overlapping or interbreeding. A similar situation probably exists in Tunisia. It is suggested that the two “forms” could well represent different species, instead of morphs or subspecies, and such an hypothesis should be tested in the future through better field work and behavioural observations as well as mitochondrial DNA analysis. Cicindelaflexuom Fabricius, 1787 is one of the oldest known tiger beetle species of the world. In fact, it was one of the only 50 species of this beetle fam- ily which were early described in 18”‘ Century (Fabricius, 1787; Pearson and Cassola, 2005). Later on, it was included by Rivalier (1948, 1950) in the genus Lopbym, firstly created by Motschulsky (1859) for Cicindela cczterm Fabricius, 1775, from India. Lop/Jym {Lopbyrflflexuosa is one of the few world’s tiger bee- tle species whose male exhibits a “penicillum” under the 4”‘ antennomere, a character which induced Ganglbauer (1892) to create for it a special genus (Ckzzetostylzz) which today appears to just be a junior synonym of Lop/9}/m (Ri— valier, 1948; Cassola, 1983). L. flexuoszz is a mainly West—Mediterranean species, known to inhabit the whole of northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt (Bedel, 1895; Horn and Roeschke, 1891; Horn, 1926; Cassola, 1973; Korell and Cassola, 1987; Wies- ner, 1992), the Iberian peninsula (Jeanne and Zaballos, 1986; Serrano, 1986; Serrano, 2003), the French Atlantic coasts up to the estuary of River Loire (Bonadona, 1971), southern France (Provence) (Bessonnat, 1973) and a few Mediterranean Islands such as the Baleares (jeannel, 1941). The species’ oc—