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Twelve species of Platypalpus Macquart are described as new to science from different regions in Morocco: P. atlasensis sp. nov., P. brevicornoides sp. nov., P. ebejeri sp. nov., P. fatnae sp. nov., P. pauli sp. nov., P. imlilensis sp. nov., P. miroslavi sp. nov., P. moroccensis sp. nov., P. nigritellus sp. nov., P. rifensis sp. nov., P. shamshevi sp. nov. and P. taninensis sp. nov. Platypalpus albocapillatus Fallén, 1815 and P. boreoalpinus Frey, 1943 are recorded here for the first time from the whole of North Africa, with the first report of P. verbekei Grootaert & Chvála, 1992 from Morocco. Some species newly recorded from new biogeographical areas within the country are also reported here. Descriptions and illustrations of new species are provided, as well as distributions of all species recorded from Morocco.
This revision concerns a small group of Western Palaearctic Copris species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea:
Scarabaeidae) distinguished by having three lateral teeth on the foretibae. According to the literature, this group consists of four taxa: Copris armeniacus Faldermann, 1835, C. felschei Reitter, 1892, C. pueli Mollandin de Boissy, 1905 and C. umbilicatus Abeille de Perrin, 1901. Copris armeniacus is herein deemed a species inquirenda, and C. felschei, for which a neotype is designated, is deemed valid. Copris umbilicatus is recorded for the fi rst time from Turkey. A key to all species of the genus Copris known from the Western Palaearctic is provided. Variability of the cephalic and pronotal armature, and morphology of the parameres are illustrated.
Widely distributed phoretic blister beetles usually display unstructured geographic patterns of genetic diversity within species, resulting from recurrent long-dispersal events across their range. To investigate the extent of this pattern in the phoretic genus Lampromeloe, and particularly in western Mediterranean and European populations of L. variegatus, we performed: (1) a phylogeographic analysis based on fragments of the mitochondrial genes COI and 16S, and (2) a morphological revision based on qualitative and morphometric traits. Two allopatric lineages were recovered within L. variegatus, one distributed across Europe and the other in North Africa. These lineages are readily distinguishable based on morphological traits. We conclude that these lineages constitute two diagnosable evolutionary units and, consequently, we describe the North African populations as a new species, Lampromeloe pantherinus sp. nov. The new species is closely related to L. variegatus, from which it differs mainly by the elytral macrosculpture and by the shape of male genitalia. The elytral macrosculpture of L. pantherinus is somewhat similar to that of L. cavensis, a species widely distributed in the lowlands of the Mediterranean Basin. However, these two non-sister species can be distinguished by the morphology and macrosculpture of the pronotum and by the shape of the male genitalia.
In this study, a total of 108 Aphidiinae species, belonging to 18 genera, associated with 240 aphid species in 16 countries of the Middle East and North Africa are reviewed. 743 host aphidparasitoid associations are listed. New material was collected from various regions of Saudi Arabia during 2011–2013. Three species including Aphidius avenae Haliday, 1834, Aphidius platensis Brèthes, 1913 and Praon barbatum Mackauer, 1967 are first recorded for the fauna of this country. Lysiphlebus marismortui Mescheloff & Rosen, 1990 syn. nov. is classified as the junior synonym of Lysiphlebus confusus Tremblay & Eady, 1978. An illustrated up-to-date key to all known species of Aphidiinae that occur in the Middle East and North Africa is provided. The findings are discussed in relation to the overall parasitoid-aphid associations in the target investigated region.
The aquatic biodiversity of springs and groundwater systems of North Africa remains largely unexplored. In an earlier field survey of Tunisian springs, a new gastropod genus, Bullaregia, was discovered as a phylogenetically independent lineage of uncertain position within the family Hydrobiidae. Here, we provide taxonomic and phylogenetic assignments for three newly collected populations of hydrobiids from springs in northern Tunisia based on morphological, anatomical and genetic (mtCOI and 18S) data. Among these and specimens of Bullaregia, major differences were observed in male and female genitalia as well as in mtCOI sequences (divergence 8.0–9.1%). Based on these findings, we describe two new genera and three new species: Belgrandiellopsis chorfensis gen. et sp. nov., Belgrandiellopsis secunda gen. et sp. nov. and Biserta putealis gen. et sp. nov. In all our phylogenetic analyses, these three new species were well resolved as a monophyletic group together with Bullaregia tunisiensis. Unexpectedly, this clade emerged as sister to the European valvatiform genera Corbellaria and Kerkia and not to the recently discovered clade of groundwater, conchologically similar, species living in Bulgaria (Balkan Peninsula). These Tunisian species are each locally endemic and form part of a newly discovered clade which in future systematic studies could eventually be identified as a distinct hydrobiid subfamily.
The species richness of the aquatic (non-marine) gastropod family Hydrobiidae Stimpson, 1865 reaches its peak in the European region partly because other areas, such as North Africa, remain to be extensively surveyed. Most of the hydrobiid species described in North Africa have been ascribed to the subfamilies Pseudamnicolinae, Hydrobiinae and the genus Mercuria. Little is known about the presence of other hydrobiid subfamilies. This study examines several specimens of gastropods collected from two springs in Tunisia. Based on a comprehensive literature review and rigorous anatomical and molecular comparisons with known species from North Africa, Europe and Asia Minor of similar morphology, we here describe a new genus, Bullaregia gen. nov., and new species Bullaregia tunisiensis gen. et sp. nov. Although the shell shape of this Tunisian species resembles that of European hydrobiid genera such as Belgrandiella, it differs in other anatomical structures (i.e., penis with a glandular strap-like lobe, and two seminal receptacles, SR1 pedunculate, SR2 sessile and less developed). Using maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches, phylogenetic relationships inferred from mtCOI sequences point to an independent evolutionary lineage for this new taxon outside Belgrandiella and other known hydrobiid subfamilies.
Jeekelosoma Mauriès, 1985, is upgraded from subgenus status under Eviulisoma Silvestri, 1910 to full genus status. The type species, Jeekelosoma abadi (Mauriès, 1985) is redescribed based on topotypical material from a cave in Morocco. Jeekelosoma heptarachne sp. nov. and J. viginti sp. nov. are described from two further Moroccan caves.