Agapanthia gazanchidisi, an endemic species to South-Eastern Balcan peninsula from A. villosoviridescens-cluster, has been described according to specimens collected in several localities in Bulgaria and Greece by Maxim A. Lazarev in 2021 [❖].

A. gazanchidisi is characterized by poor development of dorsal pubescence, which is often rather dense in A. villosoviridescens. The female holotype of Cerambyx villosoviridescens DeGeer, 1775 (Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm) thanks to black antennae and densely pubescent spotted elytra fits well with traditional interpretation of specimens from Central Europe. All available specimens of A. villosoviridescens have less shining elytra, its penis and parameres are much narrower and strongly attenuated. [❖].

Body length:	♂♂ 10.8 - 15.8 mm / ♀♀ 12.4 - 17.7 mm
Life cycle:	1 year
Adults in:	May - July
Host plant:	in Greece on Melilotus sp. (Fabaceae)
Distribution:	an endemic species to South-Eastern Balcan peninsula (Bulgaria, Greece)

The depicted mounted male beetle was collected 5 km S of Petrič (Петрич; 1530 m a.s.l., Belatsitsa Mts., Blagoevgrad province, SW Bulgaria) on June 12, 2021.

Collected by Lukáš Skořepa

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[❖]
Lazarev M.A.:
A new species of Agapanthia (Epoptes Gistel, 1857) close to A. villosoviridescens (DeGeer, 1775) from South Europe.
Entomologische Blätter und Coleoptera 117: 31-34, 2021. [download ]