Holotype ♂ (S. Krejcik collection), labelled “26–27.6.2009; TR; Turkey, Pülümür, 2–7 km NW Pülümür, T. Tichny; 1550-2100 m; Tunceli”. A second label specifies “Teratolytta sp. det. Stanislav Krejcik 2011-2”. The holotype lacks the last right protarsomere.

“2–7 km NW Pülümür, T. Tichny; 1550–2100 m”. Pülümür is a small village of the Tunceli vilayet (province), in the eastern Turkey, placed at base of the southern slope of the Pülümür geçidi (pass), along the Munzur dağları (range). This locality is characterized by subtermophilic pastures and sparse woodlands.

The single specimen was collected early in the morning in a sparsely vegetated flood zone just north of Pülümür village. Although this locality has a very rich fauna of blister beetles and we collected about 30 species of meloids, other attempts to collect further specimens of Teratolytta krejciki in the same area during subsequent years (May, June) were not successful.

Large sized and slender species (22 mm) (Figs 1, 2a) belonging to the Section I as defined by Bologna and Di Giulio (2006). Body monochromatic metallic green, but legs red with metallic green coxa and black trochanter. Setation short, black on sides of pronotum and head, ventrally long and white. Head puncturation scattered, surface shiny. Sexual dimorphism not evaluable, female unknown. Male mesotibia not modified at apex but deeply curved on the apical half of inner side, and with micro-tubercles on external side. Male mesotarsomere I not modified and without modified black setae. Male metatrochanters triangularly elongate without modified apical setae; pro- and mesotibiae with two apical spurs, outer metatibial spur very large; protibiae only slightly curved. Parameres with robust apical lobes; aedeagus with two apical hooks greatly distanced to each other; endophallic hook slightly curved at apex.

Figure 1. 

Teratolytta krejciki sp. n., habitus, male, dorsal view.

Figures 2. 

Teratolytta krejciki sp. n., male: a habitus lateral view b head, frontal view c tegmen and aedeagus, lateral view d tegmen and aedeagus, ventral view.

Body (coxae included) shiny metallic green (Figs 1, 2a–b), abdomen metallic cupreous with posterior margin of sterna strictly black (Fig. 3a) and last two urites metallic green; maxillary palpi orange-red as well as legs, but coxae metallic green and trochanters black; mouthparts black, antennae subopaque black. Setation dorsally very short, particularly on elytra, black and slightly longer on the pronotum sides, genae and mouthparts. Modified setae of male last abdominal urite black. Body length (apex of mandibles to apex of elytra) 21.70 mm; head maximum width 3.74 mm; pronotum length 2.77 mm, width 3.25 mm; elytral greatest width at posterior third 5.46 mm. Head short subtrapezoidal (Fig. 2b), distinctly wider than long, maximum width at temples; sides of head obliquely narrowed from base to eyes; frons transversely depressed before the suture, convex in the middle and slightly depressed at level of the posterior margin of eyes; mandibles short, robust and curved; temples convex without postocular depression; clypeus convex; labrum slightly depressed and slightly emarginated at fore margin, with moderately deep scattered punctures, surface between punctures shiny; frontal suture almost straight; maxillary and labial palpomeres slender; last maxillary palpomeres longer than penultimate; antennae extending to basal third of elytra (Fig. 1, 2a); antennomere I about twice as long as II, subequal to III; III–X elongate, cylindrical; III slightly longer than the following; XI 1.5 times as long as X, cylindrical, narrowing in the apical third; antennomeres I-III with longer black setae. Pronotum (Fig. 1) shortly transverse, almost hexagonal, maximal width at middle, wider than long slightly depressed longitudinally in middle, slightly depressed transversally along the base; pronotal punctures as on head or slightly sparser laterally. Scutellum wide, subquadrate, with round and slightly depressed apex. Elytra elongate, feebly convex, narrowly rounded at apex, with vague traces of venation, uniformly rugose, setation extremely short. Metasternum without tubercles (Fig. 3a). Tibiae of all legs with two spurs, both slender and pointed on pro- and mesotibiae (Fig. 3b); spurs of metatibiae robust, the inner pointed, the outer very large, subtruncate apically; male tibiae of all legs cylindrical, not modified at apex, with simple setation and with spiniform and obtuse mixed tubercles on external side, mesotibiae without supplementary spine-like brush of setae, greatly curved on inner side in the posterior half (Fig. 3b), metatibiae slightly curved on inner side; male mesotarsomere not modified (Fig. 3b), tarsomere II not modified, with regular setae; male metatrochanters simple, triangularly elongate without modified apical setae (Fig. 3a). Last visible sternite of male abdomen emarginated, with modified apical setae on both sides, shorter than the entire sternite. Parameres (Fig. 2c–d) robust and with robust apical lobes; aedeagus with two apical hooks, distinctly distanced, different in shape and size, distal one smaller than proximal one (Fig. 2c); endophallus hook straight, acutely and shortly curved apically.

Figures 3. 

Teratolytta krejciki sp. n., male: a metasternum and metatrochanters b mesotibiae and mesotarsomeres.

The new species is named after Stanislav (Standa) Krejčík, an active Czeck entomologist and excellent photographer, very interested in blister beetles, who, after recognizing the novelty of this Teratolytta, kindly sent us the single specimen of this new species with some nice photos (Figs 1, 2, 3a).

According to Bologna and Di Giulio (2006) two sections are recognized in the genus, based on the absence (section I), or presence (section II) of two tubercles on metasternum, just posterior to the base of the middle legs. Teratolytta krejciki clearly belongs to section I due to certain male symplesiomorphic features such as lack of tubercles on metasternum and presence of two spurs on pro- and mesotibiae. This species is immediately distinct from T. gentilis group because mesotibiae and mesotarsomeres are not modified, and from T. pilosella group by lack of depression on males genae. It differs from T. klapperichi group because of the presence of two pro- and mesotibial slender spurs and two big aedeagal hooks, and from T. kaszabi group because of the distanced aedeagal hooks.

The new species does not shows any peculiar modification on male mesotibiae, mesotarsomeres, metathorax, which are present in several Teratolytta species (Bologna and Di Giulio 2006), a condition similar to T. carlae, but this last species greatly differs from T. krejciki at least because of the following features: smaller size and stout body shape; body colour, metallic blue or metallic green with a cupreous stripe; aedeagal hooks both at apex and smaller.

1 ♀ (M.A. Bologna collection), labelled “Turkey 12. Gümüṣhane, 14 km N Kelkit, 6 km N Ülüpinar, 40.1533N -39.2847E, 1850–2150 m, 28.6.2013, M.A. Bologna, P. Rapuzzi & P. Audisio” (by pitfall traps positioned 30 days before).

This locality is placed on the southern slope of the eastern Pontus range, in a submesophilic mountain habitat, characterized by a mosaic of Quercus woodlands and pastures, with Crataegus and other Rosaceae in the ecotonal borders.

Middle sized species (Fig. 4a), length 17 mm; body integument metallic green but head, pronotum (except base, which is green), one very wide longitudinal stripe along each elytron, meso- and metathoracic sternites and abdominal sternites metallic cupreous; clypeus, labrum, mandibles and antennae black; maxillary and labial palpomeres respectively light and dark red-orange, last maxillary palpomere black at apex; legs red-orange, but coxae, trochanters, apex of femurs and base of tibiae black.

Figure 4. 

Females of the genus Teratolytta: a Teratolytta sp. A (sp. n. ?) b T. carlae c T. dives, striped phenotype d T. dives, unicoloured phenotype e T. eylandti f T. flavipes g T. gentilis, typical phenotype h T. gentilis, blue phenotype i T. kaszabi j T. klapperichi k T. monticola l T. optabilis m T. pilosella n T. taurica o T. vanensis. Scale bars 2 mm.

Head transversely trapezoidal, with dense and deep punctures, slightly depressed in front; black elongate setae on temples. Antennae short (Fig. 4a), extending to or a little beyond the base of pronotum; antennomeres short, particularly V-VII. Pronotum transversely subexagonal (Fig. 4a), maximal width just anterior to the middle, sides subrounded in the basal half; in the middle with a slight mid-longitudinal depression; punctures slightly sparser than on head. Scutellum subrectangular, rounded at apex, with long black setae particularly on sides. Elytra weakly convex only on the basal third, subrugose, with long whitish setae, denser posteriorly and on lateral margins. Ventral side with dense and long whitish setation. Legs not modified; tibiae straight; all legs with two tibial spurs, fore and middle slender, posterior spurs spatuliform, external spur wider; claws distinctly curved.

The single female does not correspond to any described species and possibly represents a new undescribed species. We prefer not to describe it and wait for the discovery of the male.

Six other species in both Section I and II have a cupreous longitudinal stripe on the elytra: (a) Teratolytta carlae Bologna, 2006 (Fig. 4b); T. kaszabi Kryzhanovskij, 1959 (Fig. 4i); T. regina Kaszab, 1958; (b) T. dives (Brullé, 1832) (Fig. 4c), T. tricolor (Haag-Rutenberg, 1880), T. vanensis Kaszab, 1968 (Fig. 4o). Species A differs from the species in Section II because it has a narrower cupreous elytral stripe, metallic green head and pronotum, distinctly longer antennae, extending to the fore third of elytra, more slender and elongate antennomeres V-VII. Moreover in T. dives and T. tricolor the pronotum is wider in front, slightly concave, not rounded with whitish setae and head and pronotum punctures are bigger. Due to the more expanded black coloration of knees and black setation on pronotum and head, the probable new species is more similar to T. vanensis, which differs by its notably smaller size, narrower pronotum and distinctly longer antennae.

Comparing this new Teratolytta species with other striped species of Section I, T. kaszabi and T. regina, have slightly longer antennae, similar body size and both are distributed in Central Asia. Moreover, T. kaszabi has red unicolour knees and more hexagonal and narrower pronotum. The probable new species is similar to T. carlae in colour of setae on head and pronotum, colour of knees and body and the length of antennae, but differs by smaller size, less slender body, and slightly widened posterior portion of elytra . The striped form in T. carlae is a variant and other specimens are uniformly blue.

(Eğirdir) Yukangökdere, 37.42964N, -30.49899E, Kasnak forest, window-trap 17, Hollow Quercus, 17.5.2007, N. Jonsson & M. Avci (Konya), Güneyyurt Km 2 SE, 1.6.2011, F, Angelini (Antalya) Akseki, 1500 m, 22.5.1997, P. Rapuzzi. All specimens are housed at the M. A. Bologna collection (University Roma Tre).

These new records improve the distribution of this Anatolian species in southern Turkey and confirm a doubtful record from Antalya province cited by Bologna and Di Giulio (2006).