Abstract
Five species of the genus Catomus Allard, Citation1876 are known from Iran. Catomus fragilis (Ménétriés, 1848) is recorded from Iran for the first time. Lectotypes of C. persicus Allard, Citation1876 (type species of the genus) and C. semiruber Allard, Citation1876 are designated. These species are also redescribed and figured. A key to the species of Catomus in the Iranian fauna is given.
Acknowledgements and Funding
The author is much obliged to Maxwell Barclay (BMNH), Antoine Mantilleri (MNHP) and Mark Volkovitsh (ZIN) for providing the material, to anonymous reviewers for helpful corrections, and to Rolf Aalbu (Department of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences) for his linguistic review and valuable comments. The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research 12-04-00663-а.