Hedychrum persicum Mocsáry, 1914,

Hedychrum persicum Mocsáry, 1914 stat. nov. ( Figs 6A–F, 7A)

Hedychrum rutilans var. persicum Mocsáry, 1914:11 . Holotype ♂; "Persia meridionali-occidentalis" [SW Iran] ( London ). Hedychrum rutilans : Rosa et al., 2013:8 ( South-eastern Persia).

Material examined. 1♂, Golestan province: 20km E of Minudasht , 37°13'12"N, 55°34'12"E, 750m, 1.vi.2014, leg. J. Halada ( MHC) GoogleMaps ; 3♂♂, 1♀, Mazandaran province: 10 km S Chaloos , 36°30'00"N, 51°19'48"E, 380m, 15.vi.2010, leg. Mi. Halada ( MHC) GoogleMaps .

Distribution. Iran ( Mocsáry, 1914, Golestan, Mazandaran).

Remarks. Hedychrum persicum was traditionally considered as a variety of Hedychrum rutilans ( Linsenmaier, 1959a) . However, the recent examination of the type has allowed us to better understand the real taxonomic position of this species. Hedychrum persicum is clearly separate from H. rutilans and H. viridiauratum by the combination of the following diagnostic characters; body sculpture deep, larger and spaced; head profile rounded ( Fig. 6B) instead of triangular; body colour distinctly green, without red or golden areas ( Fig. 6A). This species can be immediately separated by all the other taxa related to H. rutilans by its unique punctation, which is deeper, larger and more spaced ( Figs 6D, F, 7A) compared to H. rutilans from Europe and the other two closer taxa known from Middle East, H. rutilans viridiauratum Mocsáry, 1889 ( Fig. 7B) and H. rutilans veterrimum Mocsáry, 1914 ( Fig. 7C), with fine and dense punctation, well visible on metasomal terga. A recent molecular study ( Rosa et al., 2023b) revealed that the genetic distance between the two Western European subspecies of H. rutilans , namely rutilans s. str. and viridaureum Tournier, 1877, was sufficient to consider them as separate species (> 5%), probably related to different host selection in their southern distributional range. We expect that further molecular analyses on all the varieties and subspecies of H. rutilans will provide similar results.