Calomera Motschulsky, 1862

Genus Calomera Motschulsky, 1862

Calomera Motschulsky, 1862: 22 .

Type species. Cicindela decemguttata Fabricius, 1801 View in CoL (by original designation).

Cicindela (Lophyridia) Jeannel, 1946: 151 View in CoL , 164. Synonymy by Moravec 2010: 309.

Type species. Cicindela dongalensis Klug, 1832 View in CoL (by original designation).

Lophyridia : Rivalier 1950: 237.

Generic diagnosis. The genus Calomera Motschulsky, 1862 whose species-group taxa were previously included in the genus Lophyridia Jeannel, 1946 , appears to be a rather heterogenous genus, yet the main diagnostic characters are shared, with some exceptions, with all species. The characters stated by Rivalier (1950) for species of Lophyridia are a multisetose labrum, setose lateral and ventral body portions, and the internal sac within aedeagus possessing a convoluted flagellum associated with sustaining membranous “auricular” sheets.

Remarks. Rivalier (1950) treated Lophyridia (originally Cicindela (Lophyridia) Jeannel, 1946 ) as an independent genus and expanded its originally narrow concept by including a number of Palaearctic and Oriental species. However, Rivalier (1963), when transferring Cicindela decemguttata Fabricius, 1801 into Lophyridia , failed to recognize that C. decemguttata was designated by Motschulsky (1862) as the type species of Calomera . Acciavatti & Pearson (1989) challenged such a wide concept of Lophyridia (originally proposed for taxa of only Ethiopian and Madagascan regions) and stressed some inconsistencies, particularly in setosity of lateral body portions and number of labral setae.

It must be noted here that in contrast to many Palaearctic and Ethiopian-Malagasy species which possess multisetose labrum, some Oriental species including those of the Calomera decemguttata species-complex, are characterized by only 6–setose, rarely 8–setose labrum.

Nevertheless, as other fundamental diagnostic characters are shared with species from these regions (see also Moravec 2010), all species treated as members of Lophyridia were gradually included (e.g. by Cassola 2004, Moravec 2010) under the genus group name Calomera which has priority.

Consequently, in the present concept, Calomera is a large genus, comprising Palaearctic, Oriental and Ethiopian-Malagasy species. Wiesner (2020) listed 68 taxa (36 species and 32 subspecies) with a great number of synonyms.

Notwithstanding, a complete taxonomic and nomenclatorial revision of the genus with not-yet-cleared status of a number of taxa (both at species and subspecies level) has never been performed. It must be mentioned here that such a revision of the large genus appears presently very difficult, or even impossible, particularly due to the fact that the type specimens of taxa described by French authors and deposited in the renowned MNHN collection are no longer accessible on loan, as well as for lack of curators in the MNHN collection at present. Several partial revisions of taxa occurring in individual regions were published, such as of Palaearctic Calomera aphrodisia ( Baudi, 1864) and C. panormitana ( Ragusa, 1906) by Romano & Sparacio (2018); species of C. lunulata “species group” (under Lophyridia ) was revised by Mandl (1981), species occurring in Indian subcontinent by Acciavatti & Pearson (1989) and Pearson et al. (2020); Calomera of the Philippines by Medina et al. (2021) and partly (under Lophyridia ) by Cassola (2011); C. sanguineomaculata and C. marmorata (endemic to the Solomon Islands) were revised (under Lophyridia ) by Cassola 1987b). Since the genus has neither been completely revised, nor subdivided into speciesgroups, we are submitting our revision of the Calomera decemguttata species-complex with highly important new taxonomic and nomenclatorial results.