Tentyria grossa subsp. basalis Schaufuss L 1869
Creators: name: Bujalance, José L.
name: Ferrer, Julio
name: Cárdenas, Ana M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Tenebrionidae
Tentyria
Tentyria grossa
Tentyria grossa ssp. basalis schaufuss, 1869

description: Tentyria grossa ssp. basalis Schaufuss, 1869 (Figs. 31, 65, 101, 136, 145, 181, 217)
Tentyria basalis Schaufuss, 1869: 21; Reitter 1900: 173, Gebien 1910: 68, Vilarrubia & Español 1933: 306, Fuente 1934: 31.
Tentyria grossa Besser sensu Koch 1941: 290, 1944b: 318, (specimens from Balearic Islands) Español 1954: 25, 1958: 9, 1960: 411, Viñolas 1986: 105, Viñolas & Cartagena 2005: 84, 259b, Leo & Lo Cascio 2021: 453.
Tentyria grossa ssp. basalis Schaufuss L ̂bl & Smetana 2008: 207, Martínez 2018: 58, Iwan & L̂bl 2020: 250.
Tentyria barbara Solier, 1835: 340, specimen from Mahón (Menorca)?
Types examined: The specimen type was not found. Great part of the collection of L. W. Schaufuss is lost or dispersed in diverse European Museums (Horn & Kahle 1935; Horn et al. 1990).
Additional material. Historical material: Probably syntype of Tentyria grossa Besser in the historical collection NMHUB, catalogued and labelled as “ Tentyria subrugosa Dej.?, Sicil. Parreyss, Nr. 45571” (Fig. 261), along with other five specimens from Tentyria subrugosa Besser (see comments in Tentyria velox ssp. circumvoluta).
Mallorca: La Albufera, 10.V.1986, C. Coulianos leg. (2♀♀, CJF); Alcudia, local collectors (1♁, CJF). Menorca: Calan de Bos, 30.X.2010, J.C. Martínez leg. (1♁ and 1♀, CJLB).
Diagnosis: Big size (length 14–20.5 mm, width 6.5–8 mm) (Fig. 217); black and slightly bright tegument.
Large head (Fig. 31), provided with very dense punctures (mainly in the disc), widely extended in front of the eyes that are very convex, exceeding the lateral contour; epistome triangular, dentate at the apex, thickened forward, and slightly prominent, remaining lightly, but noticeably delimited by the disc and the genae, which are also prominent and raised; gular groove very broad, transverse and deep (Fig. 65); slightly transverse, densely punctured pronotum (Fig. 101), with points somewhat smaller than those of the disc of the head; curved and thick basal margin, slightly prolonged later and slightly sinuous before the rear angles which are obtuse; the prosternal apophysis (Fig. 136) more or less lanceolate and depressed towards the centre, resembling a spoon, with blunt end, prolonged beyond the procoxae; elytra oval, slightly narrowed towards the humeri, dorsally flattened, with the surface finely and variably punctured and, more or less smooth or with transverse wrinkles, sometimes with traces of stretchmark, the basal margin is progressively thickened to the humeri which are very prominent (Fig. 145); large and robust aedeagus (Fig. 181), about 5 mm in length, with the parameres somewhat longer than phallobase, narrowed and sinuous towards the apex that is truncated at the end, the medium lobe (penis) strongly narrowed before the apex.
Comments: Schaufuss (1869) described T. basalis from the Balearic Islands (Mallorca and Menorca), without additional comments. Previously, Solier (1835) had described three varieties of T. barbara with specimens belonging to different species and localities, indicating “Smyrne” (Turkey) as a location of the variety that he named “ Mittrei ”, citing a specimen from Mahón (Menorca) in the Dupont’s collection, labelled as T. sicula. The Solier’s confusion (1835) is evident since the Balearic species differs from that of Turkey (= T. rotundata mittrei Sol.). However, T. basalis Schaufuss is very similar to other taxa described by Solier (1835), T. sardea from Sardinia, T. barbara from North Africa “Barbarie”, T. sicula from Italy, T. grandis from Sicily, T. tristis of Tunisia. Most authors include these species in the specific complex of T. grossa Besser, 1832 (non T. grossa Solier,1835 = T. rotundata (Brullé, 1832)), described from Calabria and very common in Sicily (Ragusa 1896).
The disagreement among authors about the morphotypes or group of species close to T. grossa Besser is evident in the literature (Kraatz 1865, Baudi 1875, Heyden et al. 1883, Ragusa 1896, Reitter 1900, Gebien 1910, Peyerimhoff 1925).
Gridelli (1930) suggested the need for a deep revision of this species or group of species due to their great variability, appealing to the need to study the Solier’s types (1835) to clarify the actual taxonomic status.
Koch (1941) considered T. barbara Solier, T. castrogironai Escalera (= T. occidentalis Peyerimhoff), T. sardea Solier and T. basalis Schaufuss, morphotypes belonging to the complex of nearby species of T. grossa Besser. Nevertheless, he did not make a comparative study of the different geographical forms for supporting the hypothesis, nor referred to main features as the male genitalia.
Español (1954, 1960), and later Viñolas & Cartagena (2005), adopted the Gridelli’s (1930) criteria, and Koch (1941) established the synonymy T. basalis Schaufuss = T. grossa Besser.
Ardoin (1973) described T. grossa ssp. sardiniensis after establishing the synonymy T. sardea Solier = T. latreillei Solier, without examining the type specimens and assuming that T. sardea Solier must come from “Barberie” and not from Sardinia as indicated Solier (1835).
Gardini (1995) distinguished four subespecies of T. grossa Besser in the Italian fauna (including Sardinia and Sicily): T. grossa grossa Besser, T. grossa angustata Kraatz, T. grossa sommieri Baudi, and T. grossa sardiniensis Ardoin.
Aliquò & Leo (1999) indicated that T. grossa Besser shows diverse races in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Balearics, Malta, Crete, Sardinian, Tyrrhenian coast from Italy, Ionian and Adriatic, Sicily and in numerous satellite islands, making it necessary an in-depth review.
Ferrer (2008), in his contribution to the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera, considered T. grossa basalis Schaufuss valid subspecies.
Aliquò & Soldati (2014) considered the four subspecies differenced by Gardini (1995). Nevertheless, these authors did not mention the other species described by Solier (1835) in the Italian and North Africa faunas.
Recently Leo & Lo Cascio (2021), propose T. grossa ssp. basalis Schaufuss and T. grossa ssp. sardiniensis Ardoin, new synonymies of T. grossa Besser, in addition to four other taxa described by Solier (1835), whose types are unknown to date, as they have not been referenced by any author since their description.
Beyond the difficulty of the T. grossa Besser complex, derived from the intraspecific variability recently highlighted by Leo & Lo Cascio (2021), and the disparity of criteria of all the authors, the establishment of the synonymic and infraspecific classification of T. grossa Besser must firstly involve the location and study of the types described by Solier (Gridelli 1930), which appear in each of the taxonomic proposals of all the authors.
Meanwhile, we consider that the synonymies of T. grossa ssp. basalis Schaufuss and T. grossa ssp. sardiniensis Ardoin, proposed by Leo & Lo Cascio (2021), are not sufficiently justified since these authors do not take into account that the impossibility of distinguishing some specimens from the type form, cited as an argument, could be due to anthropic introductions throughout history, as they themselves propose to explain the presence of T. grossa Besser on the island of Crete.
For all these reasons, and until more exhaustive studies are carried out, we maintain the differential identity of these island populations. A differential diagnosis is provided to distinguish the specimens considered typical of these taxa.
Differential diagnosis: T. grossa ssp. basalis (Fig. 217) and T. grossa ssp. sardiniensis, share similar morphological pattern and, above all, identical aedeagus. However, T. grossa ssp. basalis differs from T. grossa ssp. sardiniensis in the epistome which is less gibbous, with the frontal edge straight and more triangular; gular groove well defined and with the edge crenulated, while in T. grossa ssp. sardiniensis is not delimited; thickest and densest punctures; sides of the pronotum in a closer curve from the base to the apex, the base is less prolonged backwards (especially in the females), and with the margin less thick, particularly in the central lobe; the elytra are less oval with the widest base; the prosternal apophyses is lanceolate and depressed towards the centre, spoon-shaped, regularly narrowed towards the posterior end which is blunt and not bent downward, whereas in T. grossa ssp. sardiniensis, shows subparallel sides, narrowed in a straight line later from the end of the procoxas, with the end truncated and slightly bent, the central depression marked by a line and a small and rounded pit on the edge of the posterior end.
The differences of these taxa with T. grossa Besser from Calabria and Sicilia, are more evident, because this last species shows the head with slightly convex eyes and without overflowing the lateral contour; the epistome, less thickened and poorly delimited, with the less developed tooth; it also differs by the pronotum, less transverse and more orbicular, with more marked punctures, basal margin less thickened and usually not sinuate before the posterior angles that are very obtuse and hardly indicated; the prosternal process with parallel sides and smoothly converging towards the apex that is very blunt and somewhat bent downward, with a central depression, broad and subcircular in the last third. Likewise, compared with T. grossa ssp. sardiniensis and T. grossa ssp. basalis, the elytra are proportionally shorter, generally rough and with the basal margin finer and, in some specimens, somewhat crenulated.
Geographical distribution: Balearic endemism, present in diverse localities of Mallorca and Menorca (Español, 1954, 1958, 1960, Viñolas 1986, Viñolas & Cartagena 2005, Leo & Lo Cascio 2021).
description: Published as part of Bujalance, José L., Ferrer, Julio & Cárdenas, Ana M., 2023, A taxonomic revision of the genus Tentyria Latreille, 1802 in the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), pp. 1-88 in Zootaxa 5320 (1) on pages 51-53, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5320.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8203747