Review of the Pericalus guttatus-complex (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiinae) Martin Baehr Baehr, M. (2000). Review of the Pericalus guttatiis-complex (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiinae). -Spixiana 23/1: 33-39 The guttatiis-complex within the nominate subgenus of the carabid genus Peri-calus Macleay is reviewed and a new species, P. iniitator, spec. nov. from Malaysia is described. P. guttatus violaceus Andrewes is raised to füll specific Status. The subgenus Pericalus s. str. is now known to occur east of Wallace's line, too, and the guttatus-complex is distributed from the Asian mainland (Malayan Peninsula) through the Greater Sunda Islands and the western part of the Lesser Sunda Islands southeastwards to Sulawesi (Celebes). Dr. Martin Baehr, Zoologische Staatssammlung, Münchhausenstr. 21, D-81247 München, Germany. Introduction The Oriental ground beetle genus Pericalus Macleay includes about 30 species, of which 12 belong to the nominate subgenus Pericalus s. str. which is characterized by the wide, rather explanate lateral margins of the pronotum, and by generally wide, depressed elytra. The species of the genus are distributed throughout South Asia, from India to Taiwan, and south to New Guinea and New Britain. However, thus far no species of Pericalus s. str. had been recorded south and east of Java, Borneo, and Palawan. Pericalus guttatus Chevrolat has been regarded until now a polymorpic species of the subgenus Pericalus s. str. Apart from the nominate form which has black elytra with yellow spots, there is a blue or violaceous form that had been originally described as var. violaceus Andrewes. P. guttatus s. 1. was recorded so far from Sumatra and Java. P. fiinestus Andrewes from Sumatra is a very similar species that certainly is very closely related to P. guttatus. Recently collected material at my disposal revealed that this complex has a far wider geographic distribution, and, on the other hand, that it includes an additional undescribed taxon. Hence, a general investigation of this complex was made to distinguish the taxa and fix their taxonomic Status and level. Whereas P. fiinestus immediately was given füll specific rank by its describer, this was not done in the taxon violaceus that had been described as a Variation oi guttatus. In the meantime, Lorenz (1998) raised it to subspecific Status. However, there are distinct and consistent differences between the form violaceus and the nominate form guttatus, and, moreover, both taxa occur in the same area. Hence, violaceus is raised to füll specific rank, because it is sympatric and probably even syntopic with guttatus. The description of an additional, distinctive taxon brings the number of closely related forms to four, and, mainly on heuristic reasons, they all are regarded as species. Further work may prove this opinion or may demonstrate that all or some are merely subspecies of a species, or taxa of a widespread superspecies. However, this can be only assured by more specialized and non-morphological methods. 33
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