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2© 4E8ntomologica Fennica. 29 December 2003 ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 14 Book reviews A book mainly on Spanish darkling bee- Many of the species have been divided into tles subspecies. Looking at the distribution maps it would seem that occasionally two or even more subspecies inhabit the same area; this is particu- Viñolas, A. & Cartagena, M. C. 2003: Revisión del género Phylan Stephens, 1857 (Coleoptera: larly prominent in Phylan ulyssyponensis. Such an Tenebrionidae: Dendarini). — Entomological occurrence is contrary to what is generally under- Monographs of Argania editio 1: 1–93. stood for subspecies. Possibly they are subspecies with different ecological demands (altitude?), per- The family Tenebrionidae, or darkling beetles, is haps it is rather a question of infrapopulational one of the large beetle families. It is also known polymorphism, or maybe the subspecies should for having a remarkably high proportion of actually be accepted as a distinct species. This is endemics restricted to small geographic areas, a obviously a place for future study. situation undoubtedly caused by the widespread The authors give distribution maps of the spe- lack of hind wings. Many tenebrionids live in arid cies and subspecies, quite a welcome thing to do areas, and there are, for instance, several large in a genus where many species have quite a re- genera that are mainly found in the inner of Asia. stricted distribution. For Phylan gibbus, the map The genus Phylan, which is treated in the shows only part of the actual distribution, reach- present paper, is mainly ibero-maghrebian, only ing Norway but leaving out all those Baltic coastal two species reach beyound this area. Phylan gib- areas from which this species is also known. bus reaches from Spain all the way to the Baltic, Unfortunately, the title of this revision includes while Phylan abbreviatus reaches Italy. The re- an obvious error. In the work itself the genus is maining 44 recognized species are found in the credited to Stephens, 1832, a year when Stephens Iberian Peninsula (including the Baleares) or gave the description; thus, the year 1857 in the North Africa. title must be a simple typing error. Another mat- Viñolas and Cartagena have now prepared a ter, then, is that the genus name was actually val- revision of this genus. Strictly speaking, the term idly introduced already by Dejean in 1821. revision may be considered inappropriate, since Since most of the species are found in the west- no new species are described, no new ern Mediterranean, this book will not be much used synonymizations have been noted, and no new by those who study the northern or central Euro- combinations are indicated. Still, bringing together pean fauna. But for those who include Spain or North information that has been published in a large Africa in their field of interest it can be a welcome number of publications that may occasionally be addition. Noticing how many species there are with difficult to obtain results in a useful review, and a highly limited distribution, we can expect that there the keys together with relevant illustrations will still remain undescribed species to discover, too. undoubtedly be of great help to those studying this genus. Hans Silfverberg ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol.14 249 A welcome book for European pian. The Greek islands in the Aegean are in- Oedemerid researchers cluded. As in most families in Europe, the number of species increases from north to south. In the Medi- Vázquez, X. A. 2002: European Fauna of terranean region there are also several small-area Oedemeridae. Argana editio, Barcelona, 179 pp. endemics, both such that live on some islands and The heteromerous beetles have been in a constant such that live in mountaineous areas. There are systematic flux during several decades. Families no arctic or boreal species in the family, and only have been divided or united, genera have been a few transpalaearctic ones. transferred from one family to another, and fam- Revisions of genera and species often result in ily names have been changed in accordance with changes of names. That has also happened in the rules of nomenclature. However, the family Oedemeridae, and Vázquez lists several such cases, Oedemeridae is one of the few exceptions to this where previously used names have been invali- tendency. Obviously it forms a sufficiently well dated, in some cases because of homonymy, in other defined and outstanding group, so that nobody has cases being junior synonyms. Only a few of these seen any reason to change the accustomed use. changes affect the North European fauna. The Within the family systematic work has con- change of Chrysanthia nigricornis to Chrysanthia tinued. Even the fairly well known European spe- geniculata has already been noticed for some years, cies have occasionally been subjected to change, a more recent one is when Oedemera subulata was and new species have been described from Eu- changed to Oedemera pthysica. rope quite recently. Therefore, we can welcome Vazquez’s book will undoubtedly be a wel- the new book by Xavier Vázquez, in which the come contribution to all who work with South Eu- European species are presented. The book includes ropean Oedemeridae. For the fauna of northern keys for determination, a description of each spe- Europe it does not give much that was not already cies, notes on natural history and distribution, and included in hitherto used works (colour plates as colour plates showing all the species. The genita- an exception), but whenever somebody wishes to lia have not been discussed, nor illustrated, ex- widen the perspective, the book offers help. The cept for just a few species. lack of a discussion on genitalia can be seen as a When a book presents the European fauna, the weakness, still as a whole we get here a useful question will rise how ‘Europe’ is delimited. In overview of the family. this case most of the European Russia is included, but not the parts close to Caucasus or the Cas- Hans Silfverberg