Examples of disjunct distributions betweem Mediterranean and southern or eastern Africa in Meloidae (Coleoptera, Tenebrionoidea)

In this paper some cases of distribution in Coleoptera Meloidae, possibly referable to the distributional “Mediterranean-southern African disjunct model”, are examined and discussed. At least four genera, two belonging to the subfamily Meloinae, tribe Mylabrini (Actenodia Laporte de Castelnau, 1840 and Ceroctis Marseul, 1870), and two to the subfamily Nemognathinae, tribe Nemognathini (Sitaris Latreille, 1802 and Stenoria Mulsant, 1857), have ranges which include both the Mediterranean-Saharan area and eastern and southern Africa. Other examples, briefly examined, concern taxa of Meloinae or Nemognathinae which are primarily Mediterranean or Saharan, with isolated subranges also in the eastern Africa. Two main considerations seem evident from this analysis: 1) a distributional disjunct model with only Mediterranean and South African related species does not exist among Meloidae, but at most genera which have the greatest diversity in these two areas and relict species in eastern Africa; 2) the type of disjunct distribution observed in some genera of Meloidae seems referable to convergent biogeographical phenomena more than a late, single vicariance event.