New Trechini of the Nannotrechus lineage (Coleoptera: Carabidae) from the Caucasus and Crimea.

Abstract

Two new genera and three new species of the tribe Trechini belonging to the Nannotrechus complex are described from the Caucasus and Crimea: Paracimmerites capitatus sp. n. from the vicinity of the Gtatshev Pass (Krasnodar Region), Titarenkites obovatus gen. n., sp. n. from the Ofitsari Mountain Ridge (Eastern Mingrelia) and Tauridites yunakovi gen. n., sp. n. from the Stilya-Bogaz Pass (Crimea). New data on the distribution of Paracimmerites nanus Belousov, 1998 are given, and the collecting sites of the two known species of this genus are mapped. The new monotypic genera possess specific combinations of taxonomically important characters which made it necessary to reconsider generic taxa of the complex in question and to update the key to their identification. A parsimony analysis of all described taxa based on the morphological characters revealed that the Crimean genus Tauridites gen. n. is a sister group to the Caucasian Porocimmerites, on the one hand, and the common clade of Cimmerites and Paracimmerites, on the other, while Titarenkites gen. n. is one of the basal taxa of the nannotrechoid lineage with uncertain phylogenetic position. The basal clades of the entire Nannotrechus complex are localized in the Crimea, Western Turkey, and Central Caucasus with adjacent areas of the Western Caucasus, although relationships between these clades have not been reliably resolved based on the morphological characters.