Forum Entomologi Italiani

Few specimens, by shaking branches of evergreen Quercus, altitude about 650 m.
In total I have encountered it in 4 places of southern and SE Greece, from June to September, at altitude 0-1300 m., in various plants (Pistacia, evergreen and deciduous Quercus, Abies).
Length 2.6 mm.

Hello George,

has the separation between Amauronia and Pseudoamauronia a solid base?

G.

Hello Gabriele !!!
Difficult question and unfortunately I do not have access to K. Majer's article to answer with some seriousness [Majer K., 1997: A revision of the tribe Amauronioidini (Coleoptera, Dasytidae). - Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae Naturales 81 (1–2): 363–402].

So, personal point of view: Yes, I believe that these are 2 different genera, which are easily distinguished from each other.
- Winged insects, with parallel to each other the sides of the elytrae and clear presence of shoulders. Pronotum shape that strongly resembles the genus Danacaea
.............................................Pseudamauronia Pic, 1915
- Wingless insects, with curved sides of the elytrae and barely distinct shoulders. Different shape of pronotum
............................................. Amauronia Westwood, 1839 (= Aphyctus Jacquelin du Val, 1860).

M. Pic also mentions small differences in the shape of the eyes and the claws, between the 2 genera.
But comparing my specimens, I find them insignificant.


George

OK, I had the article of K. Majer (by G. L. ).
Also Majer considers that Amauronia and Pseudamauronia are 2 different genera.
At the end of his work, there is a cladogram based on 38 characters, which seems to fully confirm this possibility.

G.

I see, I have some to determine myself, I will try with the paper.

I am becoming more and more skeptical about this "traditional" approach. The criterion was to put all winged species in one genus and all wingless ones in another one -- but how can we be sure that loss of wings was a single event for all of them?

G.