Ammoecius muchei DellacaSa & DellacaSa 2002, comb. n.
Creators: name: DellacaSa, M.
name: DellacaSa, G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2003
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Ammoecius
Ammoecius muchei

description: Ammoecius muchei (PETROVITZ, 1962), comb. n.   (Figs 41–44, 49)  
 Aphodius (Ammoecius) muchei PETROVITZ, 1962: 110; BARAUD 1971: 67; DELLACASA M. 1988: 165.   
 Type locality: “Ilgas da ð, Umgebung der Passstrasse, Anatolien” [Turkey].   
Type depository: Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, Geneva.  
 Description – Length 6.0– 6.5 mm. Oblong, strongly convex, shiny, glabrous (Fig. 49). Black; clypeal margin brown-reddish; legs dark brownish with tarsi paler; antennal club yellowish. Head with cupuliform epistoma microreticulate, finely and rather sparsely punctured on disc; punctation laterally coarser with a few large punctures mixed and irregularly granulate in front of short and sharply raised anterior transverse carina; clypeus angulately sinuate at middle, denticulate at sides, thickly bordered, border distinctly upturned; genae obtusely rounded, elongately ciliate, protruding morethaneyes;frontalsuturefinelyimpressed;fronsfinelyandsparselypunctured;epipharynx: Fig. 41; apex of corypha: Fig. 42. Pronotum transverse, strongly convex, doubly punctured; large punctures somewhat sparser on disc, much denser on sides and toward base, mixed punctures extremely fine and subregularly scattered; sides subparallel, thickly bordered; hind angles obtusely rounded; base bisinuate, thickly bordered. Scutellum triangularly elongate, slightly sunken, feebly convex, sparsely and very finely punctured. Elytra strongly convex, feebly broadened posteriorly; epipleural carina distinctly raised but not denticulate at shoulder; striae deep, almost fine, on disc superficially punctured and subcrenulate, laterally coarsely punctured and distinctly crenulate; interstices flat on disc, feebly convex on preapical declivity, almost imperceptibly punctured. Hind tibiae with superior apical spur somewhat longer than first tarsal segment; latter slightly longer than following three combined. Male: pronotum relatively more transverse, less convex and with large punctures more sparse on disc; fore tibiae with apical spur plump, cylindrical, faintly inwardly hooked at apex; inferior apical spur of middle tibiae with short and obliquely truncate at apex; metasternal plate feebly excavate; aedeagus: Figs 43–44. Female: pronotum relatively less transverse, more convex and with large punctures denser on disc; fore tibiae apical spur outwardly curved and apically acuminate; metasternal plate flat.   
Distribution: More or less widespread in central Turkey; Greece?.  
 Remarks – We studied a male specimen from Greece (Alexandropolis), preserved in PIEROTTI’ s collection at the Genoa Museum, but the collecting record needs to be confirmed.
description: Published as part of DellacaSa, M. & DellacaSa, G., 2002, Systematic Redefinition Of Taxa Belonging To The Genera Ahermodontus Báguena, 1930 And Ammoecius Mulsant, 1842, With Description Of The New Genus Vladimirellus (Coleoptera: Aphodiidae), pp. 269-316 in Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 48 (4) on pages 307-308, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12587419