Entomological Problems, 34(1–2): 47–48, October 2004

Tribalus olexai, a new species of the genus Tribalus
from the western Palearctic
Tomáš LACKNER
Zoologisch Museum Amsterdam, Plantage Middenlaan 64, 1018 DH Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: lackner@science.uva.nlLACKNER, T. 2004. Tribalus olexai, a new species of the genus Tribalus from the western Palearctic. Entomol. Probl.
34(1–2): 47– 48. – Tribalus olexai, sp.nov. from southern Anatolia (Turkey) is described and compared with related species.
Key words: Coleoptera, Histeridae, Tribalus olexai, new species, western Palearctic region, description.

Introduction1-7], 1 ?, 6 //, labelled as for the holotype; one female bears
the identification label of Mr. Kapler. The Holotype and one
Paratype (# 3) are deposited at the Entomology Department of
the Zoological Museum Amsterdam (ZMAN), the Netherlands,
3 paratypes (# 1, 2, 4) are deposited in the collection of author;
one paratype (# 6) is deposited in the collection of Mr. Piet Kanaar,
Oegstgeest (The Netherlands) and two remaining paratypes (#5&7) are deposited in the collection of Mr. Andreas Pütz,Eisenhüttenstadt (Germany).

The genus Tribalus, ERICHSON, 1834 of the subfamily
Tribalinae currently has two recognized subgenera:
Eutribalus, BICKHARDT, 1921 and Tribalus s.str. Both ofthese subgenera are widespread through the Palearctic(Tribalus s. str. only), African and Oriental regions,withseveral species [ T. brouni (BROUN, 1880), T. phyllobius(BROUN, 1914), T. australis (MACLEAY, 1871), T. koenigius
MARSEUL, 1864 ] reaching Australia and New Zealand. Twospecies ( T. kaszabi THÉROND, 1967 & T. pinsapo MAZUR,1979) of African origin, have not been placed in subgenera(MAZUR, 1997).
OLEXA , in his excellent revision of the western
Palearctic representatives of the genus (1980), described
three new species: T. maroccanus, from Morocco, Spainand Sicily; T. algericus from Algeria and Tunisia; and T.
anatolicus, from Turkey and Greece.
Altogether he recognized six species as occurring in
the western Palearctic region: the three mentioned aboveand T. minimus (ROSSI, 1790), ranging along the northerncoasts of the Mediterranean basin as far north as Austriaand Slovakia (with a dubious record from Afghanistan); T.
scaphidiformis (ILLIGER, 1807), from southern France, theIberian Peninsula and Morocco, Tunisia & Algeria; and T.
freyi G. Müller, 1937, from Iraq and Iran. Later, YÉLAMOS(1991) added another species, T. atlantis, from Moroccan
High Atlas. In the present paper another new species, T.
olexai, sp.nov., from southern Anatolia (Turkey) is described.

Description
Body oval, moderately convex, colour chestnut brownwith a feeble metallic lustre. Tarsi and antennae light-brown.
Body length: 1.75 mm; width: 1.4 mm; height:
1.0 mm.
Head densely and finely punctate, punctures separated
by 2–3 times their diameter. Supraorbital stria cariniform,prolonged onto the epistoma.
Pronotal sides strongly convergent anteriorly, disc ofpronotum regularly and densely covered in shallow punctures, separated by 1.5–2 times their diameters. Alongpronotal base a row of coarser punctation present. Marginal lateral pronotal stria completely impressed.
Epipleural marginal stria lightly impressed, but complete; marginal elytral stria similar.
Subhumeral stria distinctly and completely impressed.
Elytral striae 1–2 very finely impressed anteriorly, rudimentary and disappearing altogether before elytral
midpoint.Other elytral striae absent. Punctation of elytra
similar to that of pronotum.
Propygidium sparsely and finely punctate, punctures
separated by 2–3 times their diameter. Punctation of
pygidium similar to that of propygidium, but finer; punctures separated by 3–4 times their diameters.
Anterior margin of prosternum broadly truncate, median portion almost straight; marginal stria of median lobe
very thin, but complete. Disc of lobe sparsely and veryfinely punctate, punctures separated by 3–4 times their diameter. Prosternal keel longitudinal, rectangular; disc finelyTribalus olexai sp.nov.
Material examined. Holotype ?, glued on its side, genitalia extracted, with a printed label: //Turcia, mer./ , /Avsallar b.
Incekum/ , /22km W Alanya/ , /9-23.5.1995/ , /leg. A. Pütz//;with a consecutive label [printed-written]: //TRIBALUS/ , /anatolicus/ , /O. Kapler det. 2002//; and another label [printedwritten]: //TRIBALUS/ , /olexai spec.nov./ , /Det. T. Lackner 2004//; and a red label [written]: //Holotypus//. Paratypes [numbered471234Figs 1– 4. Aedeagi, dorsal and ventral views: 1) Tribalus olexai, sp.nov.; 2) Tribalus maroccanus OLEXA; 3) Tribalus minimus (ROSSI);
4) Tribalus anatolicus OLEXA. Scale: 0.5 mm.

and sparsely punctate, carinal and lateral striae complete.
Carinal striae not divergent anteriorly, almost parallel.
Anterior margin of mesosternum nearly straight.
Mesosternum short (ratio width : length = 4 : 1) with veryfine sparse punctation; marginal stria well impressed, complete. Meso-metasternal suture undulate, rather thin.
Intercoxal disc of metasternum even, sparsely but coarsely
punctate, the punctures finer medio-anteriorly and coarser
latero-posteriorly and separated by 2–3 times their diameter. Longitudinal metasternal depression absent. Posterior margin of metasternum of male with small tuberculeat middle. This feature is shared with one other west
palearctic representative of the genus, T. maroccanus Olexa.
Punctation of lateral metasternal disc similar to that ofprosternum, lateral metasternal stria extending obliquely
and laterally reaching near apical one third of length oflateral disc.
Intercoxal disc of first visible abdominal sternite very
sparsely and finely punctate, punctures separated by 3–4times their diameters and becoming even finer and sparser
posteriorly; lateral striae impressed on basal fourth, next
evanescent, very thin.
Protibia with numerous denticles on outer margin.
Aedeagus as shown in Fig.1, narrowing anteriorly.
Aedeagus somewhat resembling that of Tribalus maroccanus Olexa, 1980.
Etymology. Named after Aldo Olexa (Prague), anexcellent specialist on Histeridae.

suggest a close relationship to one other west-palearctic
representative of the genus: T. maroccanus OLEXA. It differs from T. maroccanus by lacking the metasternal longitudinal depression in males, greater body size, darker colour, carinal striae of the prosternal keel being almost paralleland not divergent in front.
Furthermore, T. maroccanus is known only fromMorocco and Southernmost Spain, while the new species
was collected in Southern Anatolia (Turkey).
Differences between species of the genus Tribalus
ERICHSON are of a very subtile nature and the safest way fora correct determination is the shape of male genitalia only.
From other species occurring in the area of this newspecies, T. minimus (ROSSI) and T. anatolicus OLEXA, thenew species differs chiefly by the shape of male aedeagus(see Figs 1– 4)

Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Mr. Andreas Pütz (Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany) for the material of Tribalus olexai sp.nov.,
as well as for the generosity of letting me keep three paratypes.
Mike Caterino is thanked for the revision of the manuscript.

ReferencesMAZUR, S. 1997. A world catalogue of the Histeridae. (Coleoptera:Histeroidea). Genus, International Journal of Invertebrate
Taxonomy (Supplement), Wroclaw, Poland, 373 pp.
OLEXA, A. 1980. Revision des paläarktischen Arten der GattungTribalus (Coleoptera Histeridae). Acta Entomologica
Bohemoslovaca, 77: 252–257.
YÉLAMOS, T. 1991. Un nuevo Tribalus Erichson 1834 del Nortede Africa. (Coleoptera Histeridae). Nouv. Rev. Ent., 8 (n.s.):437–440.

Differential diagnosis
This is the second known west-palearctic species ofthe genus Tribalus ERICHSON to have a small tubercule
present on the posterior margin of the metasternum (malesonly). This feature as well as the shape of the aedeagus

Manuscript received: 17. 4. 2004

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