Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 47 (2), 2015 34 STATUS OF C. (MORPHOCARABUS) INCOMPSUS KRAATZ 1880 IN ROMANIA S. DREANO 1 , J. BARLOY 2 , F. PRUNAR 3 , Frédérique BARLOY-HUBLER 4 1 UMR 6290 CNRS –IGDR – Faculty of Medicine Univ. Rennes, France 2 Agrocampus-Ouest Rennes, France 3 USAMVB “King Mihai I of Romania” Timişoara, Romania 4 Plateforme Amadeus-Biosit Rennes, France 2 av. du Prof. Léon Bernard CS 34317 Rennes Cedex 35043 e-mail: stephane.dreano@univ-rennes1.fr Abstract: The study of literature and the review of the national collections of the Hungarian Natural History Museum Budapest, the collection of K. Petri from Brukenthal National Museum Sibiu, the collections of the National Museum of Natural History “Grigore Antipa” from Bucharest show that C. (Morphocarabus) incompsus Kr. 1880, is mainly endemic in Romania in Eastern Carpathians (an enclave exists in Ukraine, in Chornogora Mountains). The identification was based on little discriminating morphological criteria having a confusion risk with some taxons of C. Morphocarabus hampei Küst. 1846. C. (Morphocarabus) incompsus Kr. 1880 is a species morphologically difficult to distinguish from certain taxa of hampei, having intervals of the same width and little interrupted by superficial foveolae. This difficulty lies in the origin of the still recent ranking (2007) of some taxa of incompsus as forms of hampei, and of the attachment of this species to the rothi group. Up to recently, several sources of C (Morphocarabus) incompsus Kr. 1880 were considered as hampei taxons. Currently the use of the shape of the aedeagus end, and the aspect of the endophallus allow us to identify males individuals but not the female specimens, often more frequent than males. The 28S rRNA5 nuclear marker ensuring the separation. The study with this marker of several species of G. Morphocarabus identifies incompsus and suggests taxonomic changes. The attachment of C. (Morphocarabus) kollari Pall. at Sg. rothi, and not at Sg scheidleri, C. (Morphocarabus) incompsus Kr. 1880 which has been until then ranked in the Sg. rothi is located in the Sg. scheidleri. The analyse also shows that some populations until then assigned to incompsus belong to hampei, changing the initial distribution map. The marker 28S rRNA5 indicates that certain origins, morphologically the incompsus kind, belong to hampei (Bichigiu, Varghis, Corongis medium altitude), unlike the others (Hășmaș for the form of mehelyanus Csiki 1906), Bogata-Poiana Brașov for the type. This encourages further investigation in order to determine the exact location of species. Key words: C. (Morphocarabus) incompsus Kr. 1880, 28S rRNA5 nuclear marker, phylogenetics. INTRODUCTION In external morphology C. (Morphocarabus) incompsus Kr. 1880 is very difficult to distinguish from C. (Morphocarabus) hampei Küst. 1846, especially the shapes with equal length and little interrupted intervals by superficial foveae. This difficulty lies at the origin of the rank made by CSIKI (1906-1946) as hampei taxons, of incompsus type and of most shapes he has described (mendax, spectabilis, mehelyanus 1906). This classification has been recognized for a long time by many authors, until recently (KLEINFELD et al. 1999); LIE et al. (2001) SZEL et al. (2007) for spectabilis Csiki 1906 and mehelyanus Csiki 1906. However, SZEL et al. 2007, based on the shape of the inner bag follows ISHIKAWA (1973) considers C. (Morphocarabus) incompsus Kr. as a valid species. Based on different criteria, other authors, after 1999: BREZINA (2000), LOBL et al. (2003), DEUVE (2004) rank incompsus (at least its shapes of altitude) as ssp. or subsp. of rothi; subgeneric positions generally accepted without many arguments.