Agnathus, Germar, 1825

Jelínek, Josef & Kubáň, Vítězslav, 2009, A review of the genus Agnathus (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae: Agnathinae), with description of Agnathus secundus sp. nov. from China, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 49 (1), pp. 253-281 : 255-256

History of Agnathus

The taxonomy of the monotypic genus Agnathus has been complex. Up to date the only known species of the genus was A. decoratus , originally described by Germar in GERMAR & ZINCKEN (1818) in the genus Notoxus sensu FABRICIUS (1775 and 1801) corresponding to modern Cleridae (not Notoxus Geoffroy, 1762 , Anthicidae ) and compared with ‘ Notoxus mollis ’, now Opilo mollis (Linnaeus, 1758) of the Cleridae . However, GERMAR (1818: 229–232) himself doubted the relationship to the genera Trichodes Herbst, 1792 and Notoxus sensu Fabricius (Cleridae) because of the four-segmented posterior tarsi in Agnathus . GERMAR (1818: 232) also remarked that a similar or even the same species was in the collection Megerle von Mühlfeld under the name Agnathus ornatus [‘Megerle v. Mühlfeld hat einen diesem entweder sehr ähnlichen, oder vielleicht gar denselben Käfer Agnathus ornatus genannt’]. The genusgroup name Agnathus is thus mentioned only as possibly referring to Notoxus decoratus and cannot be available according to article 12.2.5 of ICZN (1999). Agnathus is therefore made available according to article 12.2.5 ( ICZN 1999) only by the combination Agnathus decoratus in GERMAR (1825). Nevertheless, most authors dated the name incorrectly as ‘ Agnathus GERMAR, 1818 ’ (among recent authors, e. g., NARDI (2007) and POLLOCK & YOUNG (2008)), even though the availability of the name Agnathus , its authorship and correct dating were elucidated already by ABDULLAH (1974). LAFERTÉ- SÉNECTÈRE (1849) provided the first detailed information on known records of A. decoratus and listed the specimens donated to Museum Wien by Megerle von Mühlfeld under the name ‘ Agnathus ornatus ’ as the oldest record dated before 1818. That is, he already considered those specimens as undoubtedly conspecific with A. decoratus contrary to GERMAR (1818).

The systematic position of the genus Agnathus is not yet clear, and the obscurity of its taxonomic position and frequent transfers between various groups probably caused its absence from Schenkling’s Coleopterorum Catalogus ( SCHENKLING 1940). Agnathus decoratus was originally described as Notoxus sensu FABRICIUS (see above) and placed in the family Cleridae , in which it was classified also by DEJEAN (1834, 1836). LAFERTÉ- SÉNECTÈRE (1849) classified Agnathus as a taxon equivalent to his ‘Anthicites’ and ‘Pseudo-Anthicites’ in his revision of Anthicidae . REDTENBACHER (1845, 1849) placed the genus in Serropalpidae . LACORDAIRE (1859) proposed for it a distinct taxon ‘Agnathides’ in the family Pythidae . SEIDLITZ (1875) transferred the tribe Agnathini in the family Lagriidae (now the tribe Lagriini of the Tenebrionidae ) and BORCHMANN (1936) included the Agnathinae , even if with doubts, in the same family.

Agnathus remained in the Lagriidae until 1953, when CROWSON (1953, 1955) placed Agnathus along with Cononotus LeConte, 1862 and Lagrioida Fairmaire & Germain, 1860 in his family Cononotidae . ABDULLAH (1974) classified this group as the subfamily Lagrioidinae of the Anthicidae . The Gondwanian genus Lagrioida shares with Agnathus and Cononotus some characters such as slightly clubbed antennae, internally closed procoxal cavities and connate abdominal ventrites 1–2, but, on the other hand, differs from them in the absence of notosternal sutures, open mesocoxal cavities, deeply bilobed ventral lobes of the penultimate tarsomeres, narrowly separated metacoxae and, in the larva, by the absence of urogomphal pits on the abdominal segment IX. LAWRENCE & BRITTON (1994) therefore excluded Lagrioida from the Cononotidae and included it as a distinct subfamily Lagrioidinae of the Anthicidae , but they remarked that ‘the genus differs from all other anthicids in a number of adult and larval features, and it may be misplaced in this family’. Currently the Lagrioidinae are classified as a taxon incertae sedis within Tenebrionoidea ( LAWRENCE et al. 2009).

Moreover, IABLOKOFF- KHNZORIAN (1985) placed the genus Agnathus again in the Pythidae as part of a distinct subfamily Cononotinae in his revision of Palaearctic Pythidae even if MAMAEV (1976) and DOYEN (1979) described the larvae of Agnathus and Cononotus and transferred both genera in a distinct subfamily Cononotinae to the Pedilidae . YOUNG (1991) placed the Pedilidae in the Pyrochroidae, YOUNG & POLLOCK (1991) discussed the placement of the Cononotinae in the Pyrochroidae , and POLLOCK (1994) discussed the classification of Agnathus and Cononotus as a distinct group within the family Pyrochroidae . LAWRENCE & NEWTON (1995) then stated that the name Agnathinae has priority over Cononotinae . The Agnathinae are currently placed as Pyrochroidae incertae sedis ( LAWRENCE & NEWTON 1995, YOUNG 2002, NARDI 2007, POLLOCK & YOUNG 2008) even if NIKITSKY et al. (2008) classified it as a distinct family Agnathidae (for discussion see below).