Berberomeloe majalis, (LINNAEUS, 1758)

BERBEROMELOE MAJALIS ( LINNAEUS, 1758)

Meloe majalis Linnaeus, 1758: 419 View Cited Treatment . Terra typica: ‘in Europa australiore; in America…; in Africa…’.

Meloe majalis var. sanguineus Escherich, 1889: 334 . Terra typica: ‘Cuenca’.

Trichomeloe majalis ( Linnaeus, 1758) : MacSwain, 1956: 71.

Berberomeloe majalis ( Linnaeus, 1758) : Bologna, 1989: 361.

Type material examined

Syntypes of Meloe majalis Linnaeus, 1758 ( LSL, photographs) (not sexed). LINN 6662, labelled: 2 majalis [handwritten white label]; 2 [printed white label]. LINN 6663, not labelled. Lectotype: LINN 6662 (designated here).

Holotype of Meloe majalis var. sanguineus Escherich, 1889 ( MNHAT) (not sexed). Specimen labelled: Cuenca Castilien 87. K. [printed white label]; maculifrons Lucas [handwritten white label]; majalis v. sanguineus Escherich [handwritten white label]. Figured in García-París et al. (2010: 170, fig. 2).

Lectotype designation and nomenclatural comments: The type series of Meloe majalis Linnaeus, 1758 consists of two dry-preserved specimens (syntypes) held in the collection of the Linnean Society of London at Burlington House. We examined several photographs of both specimens (available at http://linnean-online.org/), which are catalogued as LINN 6662 and LINN 6663. Revision of qualitative features indicates that LINN 6662 and LINN 6663 do not represent the same taxonomic unit, differing mainly in the width of the tergal red bars and in the punctures of the pronotum. While the identity of LINN 6663 is difficult to ascertain without manipulation and close examination of the specimen, the specimen LINN 6662 can be morphologically assigned to the central-southern Iberian plateau clade (lineage A). So, under the provisions of article 74 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and Declaration 44, Amendment of article 74.7.3 ( ICZN, 1999, 2003), we designate the specimen LINN 6662 as lectotype of Meloe majalis Linnaeus, 1758 , fixing the unique bearer of the name to the taxon corresponding to lineage A (central-southern Iberian plateau).

Likewise, the study of the holotype of B. majalis var. sanguineus Escherich, 1889 confirms the synonymy of this variety with B. majalis s.s. (see: García-París et al., 2010).

Description: Berberomeloe majalis s.s. presents the general traits of the genus (see: Bologna, 1989, 1991) and it is characterized as follows:

Length (frons to posterior border of elytra), 10–20 mm; maximum total length among preserved, studied specimens, 60 mm. General coloration black, usually with red or orange transverse bars on the posterior margin of each abdominal terga, except VII and VIII. Tegument of the head and pronotum finely microreticulated, semi-glossy. Head with punctures dispersed, similar to those of pronotum but sparser; medium-sized punctures over the temples; middle line subtle but perceptible at the vertex. Antennae (male) with antennomeres III–X subtrapezoidal, not especially expanded at inner apexes; antennomeres V and VI subdentiform, with a yellowish, distinct but diffused area in the inner apex; antennomere XI of normal width, widely cleft at the apex, with the inner end pointed. Pronotum subquadrate, with lateral sides weakly or barely convergent in its posterior two-thirds; presence of two types of punctures, small and medium-sized, all over its surface; puncture density low to medium, mostly covering the sides and fore angles; middle longitudinal line finely impressed. Elytral surface with shallow and dispersed punctures; tegument with fine but marked longitudinal corrugations. Abdomen black, usually with a wide red-orange coloured transverse bar at the caudal margin of each terga, except VII and VIII. Male genitalia ( Fig. 6C–F) with tegmen (parameres + phallobasis) evenly sclerotized; parameres moderately elongated, length similar or a little longer than phallobase, with distal lobes relatively elongated in lateral view; median lobe (aedeagus) with two similar, acute ventral hooks far from the apex, and well separated between each other; apex obliquely truncated in lateral view; endophallic hook slender. Female genitalia with sclerotized spicules in the inner side of the bursa copulatrix .

Variability: Body length highly variable, from 10 to 20 mm. Morphometric variability is shown in Table 2. Colour intensity of the transverse bar variable, from light-red to blood-red. Populations composed only by entirely black specimens have been recorded in some geographically localized areas in the province of Ciudad Real (Piedrabuena and Carrión de Calatrava) ( Bravo et al., 2017). Some specimens show a single, small red spot on the frons, diffuse and little marked (e.g. holotype of Meloe majalis var. sanguineus ). A slight variation in the density of the puncturation of head and pronotum was observed across populations. Berberomeloe majalis presents variability in the width of coloured transverse tergal bars, but on average they are relatively wide (ratio ‘total width of the second tergum/width of the transverse bar of the second tergum’ between 1.04 and 2.03, average = 1.6, SD = 0.27, N = 23). Specimens from Penyagolosa (Castellón) show wider coloured transverse tergal bars and deeper punctures. Individuals recently emerged from pupal stage present a non-expanded abdomen, almost completely covered by the elytra; abdomen expands and increases in volume as they start feeding (as reported by Cortés-Fossati, 2018a for B. payoyo ; pers. obs., under laboratory conditions). This pattern of individual abdominal size change is present in all the species of Berberomeloe .

Diagnosis: Berberomeloe majalis can be distinguished from all other species of Berberomeloe by the following combination of characters ( Fig. 6): (1) abdomen with red-coloured transverse bars of medium to large width in the posterior margin of tergites I– VI; (2) punctures on the head small to medium-sized, rounded, shallow, isolated from each other, but relatively dense; (3) pronotum subquadrate with rounded, not particularly expanded, fore angles and with lateral margins weakly converging backwards; (4) pronotum surface usually homogeneously punctured, with two types of puncturation, small and medium-sized, generally non-confluent; (5) male genitalia with the apex of the median lobe obliquely truncated in lateral view; (6) male antennomere XI wide; and (7) male antennomeres VII and IX moderately expanded on the inner apical side .

Distribution and notes on natural history: Berberomeloe majalis occurs in most of the central and eastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula, covering the Meseta Sur and most of the Sistema Ibérico Meridional Mountain Range, over the following Spanish provinces ( Fig. 2): Madrid (limited to the south-eastern border), central and eastern Toledo and Ciudad Real, Albacete, Cuenca, Guadalajara (mostly in the south-east), Teruel, Castellón, Valencia and Jaén (north of the province). Distributional limits are yet to be defined in detail. It occurs across a wide spectrum of substrates, from limestone and gypsum soils to granitic formations (see: Vera, 2004). It is present in different habitat types, mostly open areas, including cereal fields, steppes, Mediterranean shrublands and Mediterranean open forests ( Fig. 7). Most records are located within the meso-Mediterranean bioclimatic level and, to a lesser extent, at the supra-Mediterranean, in regions with ombrotype from dry to humid (see: Rivas-Martínez, 1987; Rivas-Martínez et al., 2002).

Biological aspects of B. majalis are poorly known, but they are expected to be similar to the ones described generically for B. majalis s.l. (previous to this study) by Beauregard (1890), Bologna (1989, 1991), Cros (1912, 1913, 1921, 1928) and Górriz Muñoz (1878, 1882).

BERBEROMELOE CASTUO SÁNCHEZ-VIALAS ET AL. ,