ACTA ENTOMOLOGICA MUSEI NATIONALIS PRAGAE Published 1.vi.2015 Volume 55(1), pp. 273–304 ISSN 0374-1036 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:597F0FC8-27B7-4A94-ABF4-EA245B6EF06E Revision of western Palaearctic species of the Oulema melanopus group, with description of two new species from Europe (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Criocerinae) Jan BEZDĚK1) & Andrés BASELGA2) 1) Mendel University, Department of Zoology, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic; e-mail:
[email protected] 2) Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Rúa Lope Gómez de Marzoa s/n, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain; e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract. Five species of the Oulema melanopus group are recognized in the western Palaearctic Region: O. melanopus (Linnaeus, 1758), O. rufocyanea (Suffrian, 1847), O. duftschmidi (Redtenbacher, 1874), O. mauroi sp. nov. (nor- thern Italy), and O. verae sp. nov. (Spain and Portugal). The two new species are described and illustrated. The nomenclature of the group is discussed in detail. Oulema rufocyanea is proved to be a validly described species different to O. duftschmidi. To fi x the nomenclatural stability of the whole group and avoid sub- sequent misintepretations, neotypes are designated for Crioceris melanopoda O. F. Müller, 1776; Crioceris hordei Geoffroy, 1785; and Lema cyanella var. atrata Waltl, 1835 (all conspecifi c with O. melanopus). The primary type specimens or their photographs were examined if they exist. The spelling Oulema melanopus is fi xed as correct and explained. Variation in the cytochrome c oxidase (cox1) gene across specimens of all the species has been analysed. All species in the group had extremely similar haplotypes, with interspecifi c sequence similarities between 90.5–99.5 %, compared to intraspecifi c sequence similarities between 91.6–100 %.