A new Nalassus Mulsant, 1854 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from Transcaucasia with a key to species from the Greater Caucasus and notes on the taxonomy, distribution, bionomics and trophic relations

Abstract

A brief well-illustrated review of the tenebrionid genus Nalassus Mulsant, 1854 from the Greater Caucasus is presented. A new species, N. (Caucasonotus) negrobovi Nabozhenko, sp. n. is described from the alpine zone of Abkhazia. This species is similar to N. dombaicus (Nabozhenko, 2000), N. adriani (Reitter, 1922) and N. alanicus (Nabozhenko, 2000), but differs in the structure of eyes, antennae, pronotum and elytral interstriae. The following new synonyms are proposed after examination of a series of beetles and type specimens: Nalas­sus dissonus Nabozhenko, 2001 = Nalassus lutshniki Nabozhenko, 2001, syn. n.; Nalassus colchicus madlenae Nabozhenko, 2013 = Nalassus kartvelius Nabozhenko, 2013, syn. n.; Helops cambyses Seidlitz, 1895 = Cylindronotus ahngeri Medvedev, 1998, syn. n. Keys to species from the Greater Caucasus on males and females are given. New data on bionomics, landscape and habitat distribution and trophic relations are given. Interesting patterns are observed at the level of ecological groups: forest species feed mainly on corticolous foliose lichens from the family Physciaceae Zahlbr., while alpine Nalassus use saxicolous foliose lichens from the family Parmeliaceae Zenker; steppe species feed on terricolous foliose lichens at least from the family Cladoniaceae Zenker.