Two new species of platynine carabid beetles from the Indian subcontinent, and remarks on synonymy and systematics of the genus Orthotrichus Peyron, 1856 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Platynini)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Phylogenetic relationships of three species-group taxa within the Oriental Platynini (Coleoptera, Carabidae) are briefly discussed and the following synonymies are proposed: Orthotrichus Peyron, 1856 = Metagonum Jeannel, 1948, new synonymy; = Kalchtacha Morvan, 2002, new synonymy. Orthotrichus baehri (Morvan, 2002) from the Western Ghats of India is redescribed. This species is the only representative of that genus with generalized elytral chaetotaxy in the oriental region, and it is unique within this genus by its heavily spined aedeagal internal sac. Sericoda balli, new species, is described from the upper Indus Valley of the Northwest Himalaya in Pakistan. It is probably the sister species of the Holarctic Sericoda quadripunctata (DeGeer, 1774), which commonly occurs in the more eastern parts of the Himalaya. The new species differs by the broader pronotum and elytra, by the less produced humeri, and by the shallower setiferous fovea in third elytral interval. Agonum liebherri, new species, is...