Protamaurops macrophthalmus ( Müller, 1944 )

Protamaurops macrophthalmus ( Müller, 1944) View in CoL

Figs 4, 6 View FIGURES 4–6

Material examined. ALBANIA: 2 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀: two label “ALBANIA, 27.X.2024 / 41°53'0,53''N, 730 m / 20°24'47,8''E, 2.2 km / N of Matranxhë vill. / A. Šíma leg.“ [white, printed], “under stone“ [white, printed] ( PCAS, PCPH) GoogleMaps . 2 ♂♂, 8 ♀♀: AL – Albania mer. 15.V.2016 / 40°12'55.18''N, 19°34'12.74''E / Llogara NP , sifting ( Abies , / Pinus , moss), A. Šíma leg. ( PCAS, PCPH, PCVB) GoogleMaps .

Distribution. Albania (Mali I Shejtit, Mali i Tomorrit, Maja e Korabit, Kukës and Korçë municipality, Llogara NP), Greece (Epirus, Mts. Vitsi) and North Macedonia (Šar planina).

Remarks. Both wings and legs polymorphy are well-known phenomena in Pselaphinae and represent one of the major issues in their taxonomy ( Löbl, Kurbatov & Nomura 1998). Differently, the eyes polymorphy is much rarer and it is only scarcely documented in the genus Tychobythinus Ganglbauer, 1896 , tribe Bythinini ( Holdhaus 1905; Orousset &Dubault 1985).The later phenomenon is especially expressed in P.macrophthalmus , with males exhibiting strong eye dimorphism, resulting in easily differentiated morphological forms – macro and microphthalmous. The macrophthalmous form has very large, round and laterally protruding eyes with a short lateral spine located under the eye. Microphthalmous form, described as P. macrophthalmus beieri (J. Müller, 1944) and synonymized by Bekchiev & Hlaváč (2020), has small eyes with about 3–5 ommatidia located under or around the longer ocular spine. Both forms have been recently collected in Albania, the macrophthalmous form near Matranxhë village and the microphthalmous from Llogara National Park. In both forms, only microphthalmous or blind females are known.