Abax parallelepipedus ligurinus, Zanella, Lorenzo, 2017

Abax parallelepipedus ligurinus n. subsp.

Type locality. Monte San Giorgio (Savona), Liguria, Italy.

Holotype description. ♂, length 17.6 mm (from labrum margin to the end of the elytra), parallel-sided shape, shiny black colour. Frons delimited by wrinkled furrows, vertex smooth. Pronotum length 4.1 mm, maximum width 5.9 mm just ahead middle. Pronotum base width 5.2 mm, concave, with two basal foveae each side, impunctated, of which only the outer one is smooth and reaches the basal margin whereas the inner one is shorter and rugose.

Elytra: base width 5.4 mm, maximum width 6.6 mm just behind the middle. Shoulders with a small tooth. Striae deep, appearing smooth, but with evanescent traces of very fine puncturation in their basal tract. Intervals convex but slightly flattened in the centre of the elytral disc. Base of the seventh interstria raised in a sharp keel. Setiferous pore at the base of the scutellary stria.

Diagnosis. This subspecies differs from the typical form by the body shape being less stout ( Fig. 3A View FIGURE 3 ). Pronotum and elytra are proportionally narrower at their bases, so the body shape is less parallel-sided. Transversal fine lines scattered through the head and pronotum confer an evanescent roughness to the nominotypical form; these are largely absent in ligurinus. The apical lamina of the male genitalia ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 C) is less stout, with an angular expansion less marked along the right margin, sometimes very weak, whereas the extreme tip is almost pointed instead than evidently truncate.

The new subspecies is very similar to A. p. curtulus , differing only in that the size is slightly larger on average, the pronotum base is proportionally narrower (especially in males), and the apical lamina of the aedeagus is more parallel-sided, with the tip less pointed. A detailed morphometric comparison between the two subspecies is reported by Zanella (2016).

Type material. Holotype: ♂, ITALY, Liguria Region, Savona province , Monte San Giorgio. Bearing three labels as follows:

- (handwritten) M. S. Giorgio (Savona) / 10.XI.1974 / leg. Bucciarelli - (handwritten) Abax ater contractus

- (printed, red label) HOLOTYPUS / Abax parallelepipedus ssp. ligurinus / det L. Zanella 2016 It is deposited in MSNV.

Paratypes. 16 ♂ and 36 ♀, ITALY, Liguria Region, Savona province .

MSNV (12 ♀, 7 ♂ all from Monte S. Giorgio, SV): 1 ♂ 6.II.1966 leg. L. Spezia;

1 ♂ 26.X.1968 leg. I. Bucciarelli;

2 ♂ 3.XI.1974 leg. I. Bucciarelli;

1 ♀ 10.XI.1974 leg. I. Bucciarelli;

2 ♂, 1 ♀ 21.II.1976 leg. E. Ratti;

3 ♂, 2 ♀ XI.1977 leg. E. Ratti;

6 ♀ 13.XI.1977 leg. E. Ratti.

CLZ (8 ♂, 25 ♀):

1 ♂, 1 ♀ Monte S. Giorgio 13.XI.1977 leg. E.Ratti; 2 ♂, 10 ♀ Monte S. Giorgio VII.2011 leg. C. Sola; 5 ♂, 12 ♀ Altare Val Bormida VII.2011 leg. C. Sola; 2 ♀ Cadibona 5.VI.1979 leg. P. Magrini.

ETHZ (1 ♂, 1♀):

1♂, 1 ♀ Altare Val Bormida VII.2011 leg. C. Sola

Etymology. The name refers to the Italian region where this subspecies occurs.