Forum Entomologi Italiani

Buongiorno!
Ho trovato questo Otolelus (lunghezza 2 mm) ad agosto nella vegetazione costiera vicino a Liznjan (Istria). Purtroppo non ho una chiave per questo genere. Come si riconosce la specie?

Grazie,
Michael

The valid generic name is Gompelia (sensu Alonso-Zarazaga)

In orded to identify it I am afraid you will need to extract the genitalia.

check this: https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/EntBer_44_0275-0278.pdf

E.

_________________
«Discendiamo da scimmie evolute, non da angeli caduti» Robert Ardrey

Femmina di:
Otolelus pruinosus pruinosus (Kiesenwetter, 1861).


Prima la specie era nel genere Vanonus.
Ora

Ciao
Giuseppe

Thank you for your answers and the identification. I had doubts because of e.g. O. flaveola which is not mentioned in Klingers review of the pruinosus-group.

I now understand that the taxonomy is rather complicated. Mulsant & Rey proposed the name Olotelus, which was already used in Tenebrionidae. Mroczkowski then proposed Otolelus as a replacement, and that name was used by some authors. Alonso-Zarazaga now says that this name is not valid because Mroczkowski forgot to designate a type species, and replaced it by Gompelia.

However the species in question (pruinosus) was not put by him into Gompelia, but into the genus Cobososia as Cobososia pruinosa, an assignment which apparently didn't up to now find its way into literature. It seems not clear whether Cobososia and Otolelus (Gompelia) are really different genera. If not, the correct name would be Cobososia, which is older.

Meanwhile I will label the speciemen Otolelus pruinosus until these questions are resolved.

Ciao,
Michael