Carabus (Morphocarabus) bjalasnicensis Apfelbek, 1902 bona sp.

Distribution: West of the Velika Morava river (Central, North-West, West and South-West Serbia and accross the Drina river up to Central and North-West Bosnia). Northern border of areal is the Sava river.

Diversity: on the territory of Serbia Carabus (Morphocarabus) bjelasnicensis populations are represented by three subspecies: ssp. koshanini, ssp. tarensis i ssp. cerensis. Morphologically, by the form of endophallus they clearly belong to bjelasnicensis but they also clearly differ among themselves, i.e. they manifest their pecularities. In external morphology these subspecies differ in organisation of primary, secondary and tertiary elytrae sculpture, dominant population colour, and the type of habitat. Subspeciae koshanini and tarensis are polychrome, with roughly expresed sculpture, while the cerensis subspecies is practically monochromatic (blue coloured specimens are dominant) and have considerably finer sculpture.

Habitat: the koshanini is clearly platicolous species, inhabits alpine and subalpine meadows, tarensis is silvicolous, while cerensis inhabits the edges of light deciduous forests and clearings with sparse vegetation.

Endophallus morphology: tarensis and koshanini evidently have the greatest similarity with the nominal subspecies bjelasnicensis. In these subspecies caudal part of distal lobe seen from dorsal side in region of pygmenteum field is almost square, while in cerensis this part of lobe is longer and rectangular.

Nomenclature: It is not quite clear which name has priority for the populations designated bjelasnicensis. The reason is unclear or unknown type locality of current names. On the other hand, all populations in this region are phenotypically similar, and their objective status in regard to other populations can be determined only on the basis of endophallus morphology. The case of bjelasnicensis Apfelbek, 1902, name is very indicative. According to the nomenclature quoted by Breuning (1932-1937) at least 5 names have priority.

illigeri Dejean, 1826 (type locality "Croatia"?!)
laticollis Sturm, 1826 (type locality "Croatia"?!)
stentzi Villa, 1833 (type locality not known)
parallelus Kraatz, 1878 (Mt. Pljesevica, Bosnia)
curtulus Gnglb., 1892 (type locality: hills surrounding Sarajevo)
bjelasnicensis Apfelbek 1902 (Mt. Bjelasnica, near Sarajevo, Bosnia)

Due to the lack of material for genitalisation and analysis of endophallus morphology as the only reliable sign in proving of phylogenetic affiliation of a population, it was not possible to confirm that curtulus Gnglb., 1892 represents senior synonym of bjelasnicensis Apfelbek, 1902, although it seems only possibility. Other quoted names also were potential candidates as it can be expected that parallelus Kraatz, 1878 (locus typicus Pljesevica, Bosnia) belongs, due to the type of endophallus morphology, to the populations from the vicinity of Sarajevo. The material studied for this presentation belonged to the population from Mt. Bjelasnica (locus typicus od bjelasnicensis); there fore this name is used as valid in this presentation.

The illigeri Dejean, 1826 name probably can not be considered current where central Bosnian populations are concerned because of insufficiently clearly defined locus typicus. On the basis of the existing material no conclusions can be drawn, although the population from the vicinity of Karlovac (village Bosanci) would be the most acceptable solution. It should be pointed out that the populations from this region (Karlovac, Bosanci) differ from central Bosnian populations (=bjelasnicensis) in endophallus morphology. The serious study of these populations could suggest that in this case we also deal with a clearly differentiated species.

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