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Type: Article
Published: 2015-03-03
Page range: 573–580
Abstract views: 36
PDF downloaded: 2

A new species of the enigmatic genus Osphyoplesius from Sicily (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea: Pythidae)

c/o Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze, Sezione di Zoologia “La Specola”, Via Romana, 17 - 50125 Firenze, Italy (external collaborator). Home: Via Gianfilippo Braccini, 7 - 50141 Firenze.
Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia, S. Croce 1730 - 30135 Venezia, Italy.
Osphyoplesius new finding taxonomy morphometrics sexual dimorphism

Abstract

Osphyoplesius is an obscure Palearctic genus tentatively placed in Pythidae, comprising one species from Crimea and one from Greece, each of them collected only once. A third species is here described from Sicily, based on recently collected specimens. Despite the poor sample, statistic analysis of morphometrical data allowed to confirm the differentiation between the new species and its closest relative, and revealed the existence of sexual dimorphism in the genus.