A new species of keratin beetle from Western India, Omorgus (Omorgus) khandesh Strümpher & Kalawate, new species, is described and illustrated. The new species is morphologically most similar to O. (O.) rimulosus (Haaf, 1957). The latter is redescribed and illustrated to enable accurate recognition of both species. Based on this work the following taxonomic changes are proposed: Three species are transferred from the subgenus Afromorgus Scholtz, 1986 to the nominotypical subgenus: O. (O.) inclusus (Walker 1858), O. (O.) maissouri (Haaf, 1945a) and O. (O.) rimulosus (Haaf, 1957). Lastly, we include an annotated catalogue of the species of the nominotypical subgenus Omorgus known from the Oriental and Palaearctic regions.

In this paper, we describe and illustrate another species of the family Trogidae, Omorgus (Afromorgus) moreshwar Kalawate & Strümpher, new species from the western part of Maharashtra State in India. In addition, a catalogue of all 22 valid species with their available synonyms of the subgenus Afromorgus Scholtz, 1986 known from the Oriental and Palaearctic Regions is presented. For each species we report type depository, type locality, chresonymy and distribution. Lectotypes are designated for the following species: Trox haagi Harold, 1872 (now Omorgus (A.) haagi), Trox indicus Harold, 1872 (now Omorgus (A.) indicus) and Trox lobicollis Arrow, 1927 (now Omorgus (A.) lobicollis). Omorgus (A.) desertorum (Harold, 1872), valid species, is redescribed and raised from a subspecies of Omorgus (A.) niloticus (Harold, 1872).

The present study documented 50 species represented by 25 genera, 17 tribes, seven subfamilies belonging to Hybosoridae, Geotrupidae and Scarabaeidae of the superfamily Scarabaeoidea from the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra. The identified specimens are deposited at the National Zoological Collection, Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune, Maharashtra, India. This is the preliminary study and a first report on the dung beetle fauna of this region covering almost the entire northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra.

The present study was taken up to report a new record of the tiger moth genus, Olepa Watson, 1980 from India along with the discovery of a new subspecies. Earlier the genus was thought to have restricted distribution range in South and South-East Asia until the report of O. schleini Witt, Müller, Kravchenko, Miller, Hausmann & Speidel from the Mediterranean Coastal Plain of Israel in 2005. The species identification and the new subspecies is proposed based on the combination of morphological studies, available literature comparisons, geographical distribution, DNA barcoding and its phylogeny. Morphological character crypticity and genital structure variations are well documented in the genus with ‘bio-species’ groups. DNA Barcoding data of mt COI has provided some resolution in sorting the problems of ‘bio-species’ groups of the genus in the past studies. In the present study, with the available mt DNA COI barcodes and newly generated barcodes genetic identity is confirmed for the species O. ricini, O. schleini, O. toulgoeti and Olepa schleini chandrai ssp. nov., with their phylogenetic relationships. Morphological variations within the O. schleini species complex are discussed with a new record of the species for India and a new subspecies description. With the first mt COI barcode phylogeny for the genus, comments are made on the taxonomic identity of the mt COI DNA barcodes available in the GenBank for the Olepa species from India.