L. Forró - É. Murai szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 5. 1989 (Budapest, 1989)
Stoch, F.: Critical remarks on the southern Italian asellids described by E. Dudich (1925) with redescriptions of some taxa (Crustacea, Isopoda, Asellota)
Uropods slightly shorter than pleotelson; exopod and endopod subequal in length. Variability: The spinulation of pleopod I in males is variable (see Fig. la,f, g and the figures published by ARCANGELI 1942); the ratio between exopod and endopod of pleopod II in males varies between 1. 33 and 1. 65; the number of segments of flagellum of A 1 is highly variable in both sexes. Distribution: The distribution of the taxon in Italy includes almost the whole peninsular Italy (but it is localized), Sardinia and Sicily (where other similar species also occur): Asellus gardinii Arcangeli, 1942 is a probable synonym; the relationships between populations of Proas elm's banyulensis described as tergestinus (Stoch, 1985), lucifugus (DeelemanReinhold, 1965), septentrionalis (Herbst, 1956), peregrinus (Herbst, 1956), perarmatus (Remy, 1936), africanus (Monod, 1924), bougiensis (Braga, 1948) will be taken into consideration in another paper. Remarks: Up to now the taxa described by DUDICH as Asellus italicus (Dudich, 192 5), A. polychaetus, A. banyulensis wolfi and A. coxalis cyanophilus (the latter three in DUDICH 1925a) have caused uncertainty in the classification of other samples collected in Southern Italy (STROUHAL 1937; STAMMER 1932; ARCANGELI 1942). These taxa were too similar to the "variable" Proasellus coxalis (Dollfus, 1892; type locality: Lake Tiberias, Syrie) to be considered as independent species in the more recent works. In fact their taxonomic relationship with Pj^c^^eJLis_coj£alis_, P. banyulensi s (Racovitza, 1919; type locality: Bany^ilssür-Mer, France) and other known taxa of coxalis-group was so uncertain that ARCANGELI fl'942), in his survey of Proasellus species, considered all the taxa mentioned above as subspecies of P. coxalis (except for A. c. cyanophilus which has been considered as synonymous with A. b. wolfi ). Since the publication of the paper of ARCANGELI, almost every student of the genus Proasellus has stressed the "variability" of P. coxalis and its large distribution (almost circummediterranean, with an isolated area in central Europe: see HERHAUS 1977; STOCH 1985 and the references they cited). I have revised most of the existing material attributed to P. coxalis, as well as a considerable number of newly collected samples; the results of this study (STOCH in press) show clearly that under the name P. coxalis several species are hidden which are well defined from a morphological point of view. This fact is confirmed by the results of other biological investigations using electrophoretical techniques as well as breeding experiments (VOLPI et al. in press; STOCH et al. in press). These studies resulted in a different interpretation of the systematic position of the taxa described by DUDICH, as well as in a different taxonomic value attributed to the characters used by the same author. The ssp. italicus belongs to P. banyulensis since the shape of linea duplex on exopod of pleopod V is characteristic and differs from the one of P. coxalis (STOCH in press). P. banyulensis italicus differs from type form as well as from ssp. polychaetus in the shape of area on exopod of pleopod IV; this feature is considered to be useful for the diagnosis at a subspecific level within P. coxalis-group (STOCH in press; STOCH et al. in press). The spinulation and shape of exopod of pleopods I and II, considered by DUDICH as discriminant characters, are not useful for this purpose. In fact their variability is high, and depends on water salinity (ROUBAULT 1954) and the age of the specimens, too. The populations examined by ARCANGELI from Central and Southern Italy as well as from Sardinia belong to this subspecies. Some samples collected in Sicily (STOCH et al. in press) must also be attributed to this taxon. The presence of morphologically very similar individuals of the same subspecies, in Sicily and Sardinia could be a result of passive transport (STOCH et al. in press; VOLPI et al. in press). The sample examined by STAMMER (1932) from Calabria (Arvo Valley, deposited in the Zoological Museum in Berlin and labelled as A. italicus) does not belong to this subspecies, but to a new subspecies of P. banyulensis which I will describe in another paper. On the contrary the sample collected near Sala Consilina and determined by STROUHAL (1937) as A. polychaetus polychaetus belongs to this subspecies. The attribution of this material to the taxon polychaetus is unjustified, since the shape of exopod of pleopod IV in these specimens and in typical italicus is almost identical.
