Dorcus peyronis Reiche & Saulcy, 1856
Dorcus peyronis Reiche & Saulcy, 1856 - Espèces nouvelles ou peu connues de Coléoptères recueillies par M.F. de Saulcy, membre de l'institut, dans son voyage en Orient (Suite) - Annales de la Société entomologique de France, 3, 4: 407.
The correct writing of the taxon is peyronis and not peyroni has wrote Baraud (1993). Effectively, the specie has been described as good specie in 1856 with the following full original description:
Dorcus Peyronis (Pl. XII, fig.9). Male, mandib. Excl., long., 23 mill, lat. 11 mill. Female, long. 20 mill, lat. 8 1/2 mill.
Male: ater, nitidulus, latus. Caput latum, crebe rugosum; lobis ocularibus subangulatim prominentibus; genis utrinque in spina productis; mandibulis subrectis, vix incurvatis, dente superiori alteraque inferoiri armatis. Thorax transversus, omnino' marginatus, medio vix a latere crebre punctatus; angulis anticis parum productis rotundatis, posticis obtusis. Scutellum grosse' ocellatim punctatum. Elytra thoracis latitudine, brevai, crebre punctata, lineis longitudinalibus irregulariter impressis onstructa. Pedes robusti; tibiis anterioribus extus 5 vel 6 dentatis, intermediis posterioribusque 2 vel 3 extus spinosis.
Female: angustior. Caput reticulatum rugatu; fronte bituberculato; mandibulis angustis. Scutellum grosse punctatum. Elytra crebre punctata, punctato striata; punctis majusculis.
Download the full description here.
Length of 20-34 mm, of squat form and a black shining all over the body.
It is characterized by the edge of the head which forms behind eyes a toothed expansion quite clear in the male, weaker in the female (sees figure below), and by the external edge of the meso and metatibiae which has two or three small teeth. The elytra have clear strong punctuated scratches ahead and more fines behind.
It is present in Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey (Araxe valley), Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and actually is known in Levant from North Syria (Aleppo in September), where it is not frequent, and from Israel (Judean Hills and Foothills of Judea according to V.Chikatunov and T.Pavlicek, 1997).
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 Dorcus peyronis in its original description Reiche & Saulcy (1856, pl.XII fig.6). Scan by Jean Raingeard) |
 Mesotibia with lateral tooth |