Tachycixius spec.

Tachycixius spec. cf. desertorum ( Fieber, 1876) ( Figs 3E, 5A–D & 6I)

Flata desertorum Fieber, 1876: 172 ( Russia: Sarepta); Tachycixius (Eupalame) desertorum Emeljanov, 2015 View in CoL (T. subg.)

Material examined. IRAN • 10 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀ Golestan province; Gorgan-Agh Ghala Road , 36°54'20.84"N 54°25'28.95"E; 3 m a.s.l.; 29.v.2009; Lashkari leg. GoogleMaps ; 2 ♂♂, Gorgan-Agh Ghala Road , 36°55'59.33"N 54°26'46.6"E; - 4 m a.s.l.; 29.v.2009; Lashkari leg. GoogleMaps

Remarks. Tachycixius desertorum is widely distributed in the central and eastern Mediterranean, eastern Europe and Asia Minor ( Holzinger et al., 2003). The species is apparently associated with steppe biotopes, often on saline soils (see information in Holzinger et al., 2003).

The species shows a high geographic variability, especially in certain characters of the male genitalia, such as configuration of aedeagus spinulation and shape of the flagellum appendage (M. Asche, personal information, used with permission). It cannot be excluded that T. desertorum consists of more than one reproductively isolated unit, and may in fact be a complex of several independent species. T. desertorum was already recorded from Iran (black dots in Fig. 6I) by Dlabola (1981 & 1985). Unfortunately, duplicate specimens of Dlabola’s studies have not been deposited in HMIM yet to be compared with the examined specimens (red dots in Fig. 6I). Thus, we here provide figures of the male genitalia of the species from Golestan Province, which we preliminarily identified as T. desertorum . Regarding the variation in flagellum appendage in T. desertorum group, illustrated by M. Asche (unpublished data, used with permission), the examined specimens are very similar to specimens collected from Turkey, Kurupelit.