Protamaurops, Muller, 1944

Hlaváč, Peter, Brachat, Volker & Delić, Teo, 2025, Endogean and cavernicolous Coleoptera of the Balkans. XXIX. Further contribution to the taxonomy of the tribe Amauropini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) from the Balkan Peninsula, Zootaxa 5665 (1), pp. 137-143 : 141

Remaining taxonomic problem in Protamaurops

The taxonomy of P. winneguthi is problematic. Karaman (1961) described three new species, P. similis Karaman, 1961 , P. peristeri Karaman, 1961 and P. vitolistensis ( Karaman, 1954) . Later, all three species names were synonymized with P. winneguthi . First, Karaman (1967) synonymized P. similis based on the same structure of the aedeagus. The remaining two species, P. peristeri and P. vitolistensis , were synonymized by Besuchet (1999), however, without a clear taxonomical reasoning. Moreover, it seems that the synonymy was not based on the examination of the type material but solely reporting the number of ommatidia of P. winneguthi , P. peristeri and P. vitolistensis from the original descriptions. Thus, the synonymy of the latter two species names is doubtful and has to be additionally verified. Synonymy of these two species names becomes even more questionable if we consider original work of Karaman (1961). P. peristeri was originally described based on a single male from NP Pelister, most probably from its 2601 m highest peak (at the time known also as Perister) in Baba planina mountains, where it was collected by the author, Zora Karaman, herself. She placed the newly described species in a group of species characterized by well-developed round eyes with the ocular spine located either in the middle or under the eye, together with P. macrophthalmus , P. beieri (now synonym of P. macrophthalmus ) and P. serbicus Karaman, 1961 . Differently, the second group of species, including P. bicarinatus , P. winneghuti , P. similis and P. vitolistensis , is characterized by the existence of rudimentary eyes, with some ommatidia around or above the eye. Due to the strong eye dimorphism in P. macrophthalmus , the separation of two groups of species based on the structure of eyes is not informal. Due to this, the status of P. bicarinatus (Reitter, 1918) , known only by a single female holotype ( Hlaváč, Baňař & Koukalová, 2021), remains doubtful and needs to be confirmed by finding a male from the type locality. The discovery of one male specimen of P. peristeri from Pelister, collected by a well-known Czech specialist on Staphylinidae Jan Rambousek in 1914, in the collection of Volker Brachat, allowed us to correct the taxonomical status of P. peristeri (see the text above).