A review of subtribe Cymindidina Laporte, 1834 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Lebiini) in Southwestern Saudi Arabia, with descriptions of two new species
Author
Rasool, Iftekhar
Author
Felix, Ron F. F. L.
Author
Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S.
Author
Aldhafer, Hathal M.
text
Zootaxa
2017
4236
1
157
171
journal article
36472
10.11646/zootaxa.4236.1.9
fa4ecbc5-eabe-41da-98f1-cbc48f70cf75
1175-5326
322004
26A191C8-6F05-4847-B1B7-0A526C127EEA
Afrotarus
Jeannel, 1949
Afrotarus
is a polytypic genus of
Cymindidina
, comprising six described species distributed in East Africa, Arabia and
Israel
(
Bousquet 2012
).
Ball and Hichlie (1983)
treated
Afrotarus
as a subgenus of
Cymindis
, but later on in
Bousquet (2012)
Afrotarus
is a separate genus.
Afrotarus
species are very similar to some members of genus
Cymindis
but can be differentiated from the South Arabian species of the latter by two supraorbital ridges not branched and last labial palpomeres weakly dilated at apex. From the Arabian Peninsula only
Afrotarus scotti
is known, which was described from
Yemen
by
Basilewsky (1948)
and then reported from
Saudi Arabia
(
Mateu 1986
). Although the
holotype
of
A. scotti
was not found, a
paratype
specimen from MRCA was examined and compared with Saudi materials preserved in the BMNH, which was identified by Mateu and recently collected during this work. Based on this, the Saudi specimens apparently similar to
A. scotti
paratype
, are designated here as
A. soudaensis
sp. n.
and
A. fadli
sp. n.