Xantholinus tricolor ( FABRICIUS , 1787)

Assing, Volker, 2015, A revison of the Lithocharis species of the Palaearctic, Oriental and Australian regions (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae: Medonina), Linzer biologische Beiträge 47 (2), pp. 1133-1178 : 1175

Xantholinus tricolor ( FABRICIUS, 1787)

Staphylinus tricolor FABRICIUS, 1787: 221 f.

Type material examined: Lectotype, present designation: "tricolor / Lectotypus Staphylinus tricolor Fabricius , desig. V. Assing 2015 / Xantholinus tricolor (Fabricius) , det. V. Assing 2015 " (currently in NHMD).

Comment: The original description of Staphylinus tricolor is based on an unspecified number of syntypes from "Daniae Boletis" ( FABRICIUS 1787). The interpretation of this rather common and widespread Palaearctic species had largely been uncontroversial until, based on an examination of a putative type, DRUGMAND (1994) stated that this type was conspecific with Lithocharis ochracea ( GRAVENHORST, 1802) , that consequently the binomen for the species previously referred to as Lithocharis ochracea was L. tricolor (FABRICIUS) , and that the species which had been interpreted as Xantholinus tricolor was without valid name. Thus, he described it as X. meyeri DRUGMAND, 1994 . In an article published in the same year, however, CICERONI (1994) found that Xantholinus tricolor , which he interpreted in the traditional sense, had four synonyms, all of them older than X. meyeri .

HERMAN (2001) doubted and refused to accept Drugmand´s conclusions arguing that DRUGMAND (1994) had failed to produce evidence that he had actually examined a true (and the only) type specimen, that type material in the Fabricius collection had been known to be replaced by non-type specimens, that the "changes proposed by Drugmand [were] too radical to be made so casually", and that the original description was not in agreement with Lithocharis ochracea .

Alexey Solodovnikov (NHMD) located two specimens labelled as [ Staphylinus ] tricolor in the Fabricius collection, one in the Copenhagen and one in the Kiel collection. (The latter is currently housed in the NHMD, too.) The slightly damaged specimen from the Copenhagen collection had been examined and evidently re-mounted by Drugmand; it is a female Lithocharis ochracea labelled "S: tricolor [evidently a curator label] / Type [a red printed recent label] / D. Drugmand Rev. 1992, Lithocharis tricolor (F.), = ochraceus (Grav) / zmuc 00037679". The specimen from the Kiel collection bears the original label "tricolor" in Fabricius´ handwriting. Although it is in very poor condition (abdomen missing), it is undoubtedly conspecific with the traditional interpretation of X. tricolor . While this specimen fits the original description, that from the Copenhagen collection clearly does not ("Caput atrum, nitidum"; "Abdomen nigrum"). Moreover, it would seem most unlikely that FABRICIUS (1787) attributed two specimens that are so different in body size and numerous other characters to one and the same species. Therefore, it is concluded that only the specimen from the Kiel collection represents a true type and that the specimen from the Copenhagen collection is no syntype, but was added to the collection subsequently. In order to stabilize the prevailing interpretation of X. tricolor , the syntype from the Kiel collection is designated as the lectotype. It was re-mounted using the original pin.