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Francesco
Forum Admin
Luxembourg
9454 Posts |
 Posted - 22/09/2019 : 07:36:59
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It does results to me that these species have been put in synonymy after the revalidation of suturalis.
Nevertheless, I raised some doubts in my book of Cerambycidae from Luxembourg (here, p. 118-119):
A. cardui (s. l.) is widespread in the western Palaearctic from Spain to the Middle East.
Sama (2002) pointed out the presence of two "phenotypes", dominating in Europe (cardui = pannonica) or in the south Mediterranean (suturalis), widely coexisting and intergrading in the northern Mediterranean.
According to Švácha (2001), larvae are clearly different, but no character was added supporting this claim.
Recently, Sama (2008) evidenced that some male genital characters (aedeagus and endophallic sclerites) are the best differential characters; nevertheless, leaving a still inconclusive situation. In fact, the evidenced characters still show a patent variability that might lead to split interpretations (further species? intraspecific variability?), while the author avoided to investigate coexisting populations in order to exclude the merging of genital characters. Actually, the presence of virtually unidentifiable specimens in mixed populations suggests that the taxa are probably able to interbreed, since sibling species tend to accentuate their differences in overlapping areas (Brown & Wilson, 1956).
Some specimens, like this one or this one, leave doubts.
Possibly, a genetical analyses of large populations might led to clarify this situation. |
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Agapanthia cardui / suturalis
