Tefflus carinatus carinatus Klug (1853: 247) Figures 3-4, 6. Diagnosis. The smaller of the two species of Tefflus in the Republic of South Africa (length 26-37 mm); vertex of head with large, round distinct punctures; pronotum with large, irregular round punctures, punctures not confluent; femora and tibiae with multiple stout suberect setae; elytra flattened, disc planate; elytral carinae narrower than adjacent rows of punctures; integument black or metallic violet. Historical record from South Africa. “Transvaal” (Basilewsky 1946). The species has also been recorded from present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe (Basilewsky 1946). Specimens examined. REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: KwaZulu-Natal Province, Ndumu, XII.1960 (1 male, TMSA). Mpumalanga Province, Nelspruit (1 male, NMNH). Taxonomic note. Basilewsky (1946) divided T. carinatus into three subspecies on the basis of dorsal coloration and geographic distribution. Two of these subspecies, the nominate T. c. carinatus and T. c. violaceus, occur in southern Africa, with the Zambezi River serving as a dividing line between the geographic distributions of these two subspecies. According to Basilewsky (1946), the southern subspecies T. c. carinatus has black dorsal coloration, while the northern subspecies T. c. violaceus Klug has violet dorsal coloration. We examined black as well as metallic violet specimens of T. carinatus from the Republic of South Africa (Figures 3-4), suggesting that further revision of this complex and re-evaluation of the subspecific taxa recognized by Basilewsky (1946) is probably in order.

Published as part of Mawdsley, Jonathan R., Sithole, Hendrik & Mawdsley, Alice S., 2011, Peaceful giant ground beetles: The genus Tefflus Latreille (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in the Republic of South Africa, pp. 1-7 in Insecta Mundi 2011 (181) on pages 3-4, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5161042