Elateroides dermestoides ( Linnaeus, 1761 )

Nardi, Gianluca, 2019, Synonymic notes on European Lymexylidae (Coleoptera), Zootaxa 4550 (4), pp. 597-599 : 597

Elateroides dermestoides ( Linnaeus, 1761)

Cantharis dermestoides Linnaeus 1761: 201 .

Lymexylon proboscideum Fabricius 1781: 256 .

Hylecoetus gamoclopus De Cristofori & Jan 1832: 25 , syn. nov.

Hylecoetus minor Grimmer 1841: 16 , 37, 50, syn. nov.

Remarks. Hylecoetus gamoclopus De Cristofori & Jan, 1832 , from " It. bor. [= Italia borealis = northern Italy]", was given as an unnecessary new name for " dermestoides ♀ " and " proboscideus ♂ " ( De Cristofori & Jan 1832: 25). As Cantharis dermestoides Linnaeus, 1761 , and Lymexylon proboscideum Fabricius, 1781 are subjective synonyms ( Cuccodoro 2007), it follows that Hylecoetus gamoclopus De Cristofori & Jan, 1832 is a junior objective synonym of Elateroides dermestoides ( Linnaeus, 1761) syn. nov.

Hylecoetus minor Grimmer, 1841 comes from Styria. In its short original description ( Grimmer 1841: 37), it was compared to " gamoclopus ", i.e. Hylecoetus gamoclopus De Cristofori & Jan, 1832 (cf. Grimmer 1841: 16, as " Hylecoetus gamoclopus de Cr. "). This last name is a junior objective synonym of Elateroides dermestoides ( Linnaeus, 1761) (see above). Grimmer (1841: 50), in a note at the end of his book, considering the sexual dimorphism and the morphological variability of the taxa close to H. minor , seems to doubt its validity.

Elateroides dermestoides is the sole species of Lymexylidae : Hylecoetinae Gistel, 1856 known from Austria (cf. Cuccodoro 2007; Kopecký & Mikát 2012). This species shows a great morphological (colour and size) variability (cf. Baudi 1873; Bollow 1940; Wheeler, 1986, in all cases as Hylecoetus dermestoides ), and on the basis of the description of Grimmer (1841) and the study of many specimens (cf. Nardi et al. 2009), the following new synonym is established: Elateroides dermestoides ( Linnaeus, 1761) = Hylecoetus minor Grimmer, 1841 syn. nov.

Hylecoetus dermestoides a. fulvipennis Reitter, 1911: 299, from Germany, must be deleted from the list of synonyms of Elateroides dermestoides ( Cuccodoro 2007) , since it is an unavailable infrasubspecific name ( ICZN 1999, Article 45.6.2; Lingafelter & Nearns 2013), therefore this list now includes 14 names (cf. Cuccodoro 2007). Moreover, Roubal (1921: 136) described Hylocoetus [sic!] dermestoides Latr. [sic!] ab. rufocinctus from Bohemia, and Bollow (1940: 867) described Hylecoetus dermestoides L. ab. nigrocephalus, H. dermestoides L. ab. Reitteri and H. dermestoides L. ab. Stoeckleini from Germany, but they are unavailable infrasubspecific names.