Miniprionus pavlovskii, a rare tiny member of Prionini tribe distributed in North Afghanistan and South Tajikistan, has been described
as Prionus Pavlovskii from Tajikistan by Andrej Petrovitsch Semenov Tian-Shanskij in 1935 [▽]. The new monotypic genus Miniprionus
was established for this taxon by Mikhail L. Danilevsky in 1999 [✳]. The biology of this local crepuscular and nocturnal desert species is unknown, adults can be caught
on very warm summer late evenings and during nights (using light traps) [❖].
| Body length: | ♂♂ 8.5 - 14.5 mm / ♀♀ 14 - 50 mm (with abdomen) |
| Life cycle: | at least 3 years [?] |
| Adults in: | August |
| Host plant: | unknown, probably polyphagous in roots of desert and semidesert plants |
| Distribution: | North Afghanistan, South Tajikistan |
The depicted beetle (♂ 12mm) was collected in Sarichashma (Sary-Chashma/Саричашма) village environs (1000 m a.s.l., 20 km SE Kulob, Khatlon region, Tajikistan) on August 8, 1984.
Collected by Mikhail L. Danilevsky
[▽]
Semenov Tian-Shanskij A.P.:
Les Prionus polyarthriques (ci-devant genre Polyarthron Serv.) de la faune Touranienne ; leur relations phylogénétiques et zoogéographiques (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae).
Travaux de la filiale de l'Académie des Sciences de l'URSS au Tadjikistan 5: 237-249, 1935.
[✳]
Danilevsky M.L.:
Description of Miniprionus gen. n. from Middle Asia with new data in related genera (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).
Russian Entomological Journal 8 (3) [1999]: 189-190, 2000.
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]
[❖]
Danilevsky M.L.:
Longicorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycoidea) of Russia and adjacent countries. Part 1.
Moscow: Higher School Consulting 1: 1-522, 36 pls., 2014.
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