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Ahermodontus bischoffi (Všetečka, 1939)
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The genus Ahermodontus Báguena, 1930 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae) is currently comprised of three species: A. marini Báguena, 1930 and A. ambrosi (Pardo Alcaide, 1936) from southern Spain and Morocco and A. bischoffi (Všetečka, 1939) from Albania (see e.g., Dellacasa et al. 2001, 2002, 2016). The distribution and bionomy of both of the western Mediterranean Ahermodontus species are relatively well known. Contrastingly, A. bischoffi was described using a single female specimen collected by A. Bischoff in Llogara, Albania in 1934 (Všetečka 1939) and additional specimens remained unknown until now. Geodesist Alfons Bischoff (1890–1942) was a famous Albanian speleologist and insect collector (Horn et al. 1990; Genest & Juberthie 1994; Zhalov 2015). He often made his insect material accessible to specialists on particular insect groups and several species is dedicated to him: for example, the Carabidae (Coleoptera) species Duvalius bischoffi Meschnigg, 1936, Pterostichus bischoffianus Jedlička, 1936, and Zabrus bischoffi Müller, 1936, and the paper wasp Polistes bischoffi Weyrauch, 1937 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae).
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| Ahermodontus bischoffi, male & female |
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| FIGURE 3. Albania, Çikës Mountains, biotope of Ahermodontus bischoffi, May 2016 (photograph by S. Tylkowski). |
Adam Byk, Aleš Bezděk, Tomasz Gazurek, David Král and Sebastian Tylkowski. 2018. Ahermodontus bischoffi — Rediscovery of An Endemic Dung Beetle Species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae) in Albania After More Than 80 years. Zootaxa. 4370(3); 283–288. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4370.3.8
