A REVIEW AND MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF LOBETUS KIESENWETTER, 1852 (COLEOPTERA: CANTHARIDAE)

The genus Lobetus Kiesenwetter, 1852 (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) is currently weakly defined and distinguished from Pseudolobetus Champion, 1915 by various combinations of secondary sexual characters of males, like modifications on antennae and forelegs, in such a way that there is no distinctive feature for Lobetus. In this paper, Lobetus is reviewed, seven new species are described (L. angustapicalis, L. bilamellatus, L. bilobatus, L. constantini, L. impressicornis, L. platycornis and L. violaceipennis) and a new identification key for males is presented. A new set of features is introduced and the conflicting morphological traits are compared among members of Lobetus and Pseudolobetus. As a result, Lobetus is synonymized with Psendolobetus syn. nov. and its diagnosis is expanded to include the new circumscribed species. New combinations are proposed for Lobetus championi (Gorham, 1881) comb. nov., L. major (Gorham, 1881) comb. nov., and L. tibialis (Brancucci, 1981) comb. nov., and a lectotype is designated for L. lemoulti Pic, 1913. The case of the multiple original spellings Lobetus tarticornis and L. tortieollis is addressed, and the validity of the former name is reaffirmed. New distributional records are presented for species previously known only from their type series, representing new country records and greatly extending the distribution of the genus. The distribution of all the 23 currently valid species is summarised in a map. The validity of the characters assigned to Lobetus, the internal relationships of the species and the comparison with closely related genera are discussed based on comparative morphology, aiming to provide insights for a future systematic reassessment of Lobetus.