Blaesia atra Burmeister, 1842

Iorio, Osvaldo Di, 2013, A review of the Cetoniinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) from Argentina and adjacent countries: systematics and geographic distributions, Zootaxa 3668 (1), pp. 1-87 : 9-11

Blaesia atra Burmeister, 1842

Fig. 1 (distribution)

Blaesia atra Burmeister, 1842: 615–616 (description; distribution); Bruch 1911a: 213 (distribution); Blackwelder 1944: 261 (catalog; distribution); Krajčík 1998: 80 (catalog); Ratcliffe 2010: 109 (key; Fig. 1 ), 110–111 (description; distribution; Fig. 2 ), 112 ( Fig. 3 ), 113 ( Fig. 5 ).

Distribution: BRAZIL: Paraná ( Ratcliffe 2010); São Paulo: Campinas; Itatiba; Presidente Epitácio ( Ratcliffe 2010); Rio Grande do Sul: Porto Alegre ( Ratcliffe 2010). PARAGUAY: Guairá: Sapucay; Villarrica ( Ratcliffe 2010). ARGENTINA ( Blackwelder 1944, Krajčík 1998): Salta: no data, 1 ex. ( Ratcliffe 2010); Misiones: Loreto, 1 ex. ( Ratcliffe 2010); Corrientes: Santo Tomé, 2 exx. ( Ratcliffe 2010); Santa Fe: Rosario, 4 exx. ( Ratcliffe 2010); Entre Ríos ( Bruch 1911a); Buenos Aires: La Plata, 14 exx. ( Ratcliffe 2010). URUGUAY ( Blackwelder 1944, Krajčík 1998): Tremoleras Collection, identified by Bruch ( Tremoleras 1910); Tacuarembó: Pozo Hondo ( Ratcliffe 2010); Treinta y Tres: Santa Clara de Olimar ( Monné 1969, Ratcliffe 2010); Canelones: La Tuna ( Ratcliffe 2010); Montevideo: Montevideo [type locality], Col. Gory, 1 male ( Burmeister 1842); ( Ratcliffe 2010).

Holotype (examined)

URUGUAY: Montevideo: “ Blaesia / atra / Montev.” [handwritten by Burmeister, pinned to the bottom of the drawer], 1 male [ HBBA], “ Blaesia / atra / Burmeister / Holotypus [handwritten by A. Bachmann in capital letters] / Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales [printed]” on red paper with black border.

Material examined: ARGENTINA: Misiones: 3 exx. [ HBBA], “ atra / Burm. / Mission.” [handwritten by Burmeister, pinned to the bottom of the drawer]; San Juan [de la Sierra], 15-IV-1924, [M.P. Gómez leg.], # 27407, 1 ex. [ MACN] ; Loreto , 1 ex. [ HAHC] (from Ratcliffe 2010) ; Corrientes: Santo Tomé, XII-1924, G. Pellerano Collection, 2 exx. [MACN] (from Ratcliffe 2010) . URUGUAY: “Puntas del Miguelete (M) / II-1905 ”, 1 ex. [MLPA] ; Salto: Mataojo, 28-I-1931, Tremoleras Collection, 1 ex. [MLPA] , 17-I-1932, 3 exx. [MLPA] ; Salto?, 1 ex. [MLPA] ; Cerro Largo: Cañada de los Burros, Tremoleras Collection, 1 ex. [MLPA], 1908, T. Lucas leg., Tremoleras Collection, 1 ex. [MLPA] ; Rocha: # 4581, 1 ex. [MACN] ; Montevideo: Montevideo, 2 exx. [CBBA] ; Montevideo, J.G. Hosmann Collection, Col. Frers, 2 exx. [MACN] ; “Banda / Oriental”, “Col. / Berg”, 3 exx. [MACN ], one labeled “ Blaesia / atra / Burm. / det. B.C. Ratcliffe 2003”; “ Blaesia / atra Burm. / Montevideo” [handwritten by Bosq], 1 ex. [ODIC ]; Montevideo (Cerro), Tremoleras Collection, 7-II-1932, 8 exx. [MLPA] , 21- II-1932, 7 exx. [MLPA] , 30-X-1932, 20 exx. [MLPA] ; Montevideo (Cerro), Bosq Collection Collection, 10-II-1932, 1 ex. [MLPA] , 21-II-1932, G.J.F. Collection, 1 ex. [MLPA] ; “Cerro de Montevideo” [handwritten by Bosq], 3 exx. [MLPA] ; “Montevideo / J. Tremoleras” [printed], 3 exx. [MLPA] ; Without locality: without labels, 1 ex. [HBBA].

Note: The description was based on a male, but Burmeister (1842) wrote “indicated Montevideo, but probably African, received from Gory”. According to Ratcliffe (2010), “ Type not found; not present in Burmeister collection at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany (Karla Schneider, personal communication, September 2009) or at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina (personal observation, 2003)”. Nevertheless, the specimen labeled “ Blaesia / atra / Montev.” in the Burmeister Collection at MACN may be considered as the type because it matches the type locality, and was labeled by Burmeister himself. It seems that when Burmeister was in Halle, before his final return to Argentina in 1861 ( Birabén 1968), he brought with him part of the collection of Coleoptera , because other specimens of new species with the same localities as those given in the Handbuch der Entomologie are present in MACN.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Geographic distributions of Gymnetini from Argentina and adjacent countries: Blaesia atra (circles); Gymnetis bruchi (squares); Gymnetis cordobana (stars).

FIGURE 2. Geographic distributions of Gymnetini from Argentina and adjacent countries: Gymnetis bonplandi (triangles); Gymnetis hepatica (circles); Hologymnetis sp. (square).

FIGURES 3–7. General aspects of Gymnetini: 3–5, Gymnetis bajula (3, darker specimen; 4, specimen from the Burmeister Collection [MACN], likely the holotype of G. perplexa; 5, lighter specimen); 6, Gymnetis bruchi (Bruch Collection); 7, Aemilius wagneri (extracted from Le Moult 1939).