Atelodesmis Chevrolat, 1841

Santos-Silva, Antonio & Wappes, James E., 2018, A new genus, a new species, new combinations, and notes on synonymy and nomenclature in American Desmiphorini (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae), Insecta Mundi 605, pp. 1-16 : 2-3

Atelodesmis Chevrolat, 1841

Atelodesmis Dejean 1835: 348 . Nomen nudum.

Atelodesmis Dejean 1836: 374 . Nomen nudum.

Atelodesmis Chevrolat [in Duponchel and Chevrolat 1841: 286]. Type species, Atelodesmis mannerheimii Duponchel and Chevrolat , by monotypy.

Atelodesmis Buquet 1857: 334 . Type species, Atelodesmis hirticornis Buquet [= Atelodesmis mannerheimii Duponchel and Chevrolat ], by designation of Thomson 1864: 105. Primary homonym, preoccupied by Atelodesmis Chevrolat, 1841 . Subsequent references: Thomson 1865: 393; 1866: 393; 1868: 108; Lacordaire 1872: 625; Gemminger 1873: 3108 (cat.); Bates1880: 116; Aurivillius 1922: 305 (cat.); Blackwelder 1946: 599 (checklist); Breuning 1974: 180 (rev.); Monné and Giesbert 1994: 215 (checklist); Monné 1994: 62 (cat.); 2005: 375 (cat.); Monné and Hovore 2006: 241 (checklist); Monné 2012: 93; 2017: 328 (cat.). Syn. nov.

Redescription. Head. Frons transverse, convex; frons and vertex moderately finely and densely punc- tate, with dense, long, erect setae. Eyes small; distance between upper eye lobes larger than 4 times width of one lobe; lower eye lobes shorter than length of gena, distance between them greater than length of scape. Mandibles curved toward apex, about 1.5 times as long as gena, slightly depressed, externally pubescent on basal half, glabrous on remaining surface. Last segment of labial and maxillary palpi with apex subacute. Antennae slightly surpassing elytral apex in male, varies from almost to just attaining it in female; scape, pedicel and antennomeres III–IV with dense, long, erect dark setae throughout; antennomeres III–IV slightly, gradually widened toward apex, notably longer than remaining antennomeres; antennomeres V–VIII with sparse, long, erect setae ventrally (sometimes absent in all or part of these antennomeres, and sometimes present also on antennomere IX).

Thorax. Prothorax varying in length in both sexes, from 1.2 to 1.5 times wider than long (including lateral tubercles); slightly depressed, not cylindrical; sides with large, conical tubercle at about middle, with apex blunt. Pronotum moderately coarsely, densely punctate (sometimes pubescence obscuring punctures); with three indistinct gibbosities (in some specimens absent, the central, or anterolateral gibbosities especially well-marked): one on each side of distal half; another centrally on basal half. Prosternal process somewhat variable in central width, usually wider in female (about 0.75 times width of procoxal cavity) than in male (about 0.5 times of procoxal cavity), usually longitudinally sulcate (ranging from distinctly to slightly). Procoxal cavities closed behind, opened, slightly angulate laterally. Mesoventral process with width variable in both sexes, distal width from about half to 3/4 of mesocoxal cavity, with apex variable (truncate and not emarginate centrally, truncate and slightly emarginate centrally, truncate and deeply emarginate centrally, or subrounded). Elytra parallel-sided on basal half, slightly, gradually narrowed toward apex; coarsely, abundantly punctate on basal third, gradually finer, sparser toward apex; with moderately dense, long erect setae; apex slightly oblique-truncate (sometimes sub-rounded), unarmed. Legs. Proportionally short; apex of metafemora usually reaching middle of abdominal ventrite IV; mesotibiae distinctly sulcate dorsally; metatarsomere I about as long as II–III together.

Abdomen. Ventrite I (without central process) slightly shorter than II–III together; ventrite V in male uniformly convex, with apex truncate (sometimes with margin slightly concave). Ventrite V in female distinctly depressed centrally close to apex; distal margin truncate, slightly and widely emarginate centrally.

Remarks. Dejean (1835: 348) listed the genus Atelodesmis in the second edition of his catalogue, with a single Brazilian species name, A. vestita . Both names are nomina nuda, because the species was not described thus making the genus also not available because no validly described species were included ( ICZN 1999: Article 12.1). For a complete discussion of the names and some nomenclatural issues in the second and third Dejean catalogs, see the papers by Bousquet and Bouchard (2013a, b).

Buquet (1857: 334) described Atelodesmis for five new species: A. hirticornis , A. vestita , A. unicolor , A. octomaculata , and A. viridescens , citing the third edition of the Dejean catalog ( Dejean 1836: 374) as the origin of the name. Currently, A. octomaculata is Chereas octomaculata (Calliini) , and A. viridescens is Drycothaea viridescens (Calliini) (combinations by Thomson 1868). According to him, the genus is defined as follows (translated): “Head with medium size, convex dorsally, with frons vertical or slightly inclined forward. Eyes slightly protruding. Antennae 11-segmented, filiform, as long as body, more or less hairy; scape very long, thick, slightly conical, pedicel very short, nearly triangular, the following ones with similar length, except the last two ones that are shorter. In some species, the first four articles are covered with a long pubescence, so thick that they appear much wider than the following. Palpi filiform, with last article terminated in a sharp point. Mandibles weakly long, partly covered by the labrum, which is rounded. Prothorax cylindrical, longer than wide, with a single spine on each side. Scutellum very short, rounded distally. Elytra convex, more or less elongate, truncate at base, rounded at humeri and apex. Metaventrite slightly depressed. Legs barely long, femora more or less swollen, first article of the tarsi the longest. Abdomen with five segments, the last one rounded at apex in male, slightly emargin- ate in female.” Later, Bates (1885) included another species from Mexico, A. piperita Bates, 1885 . Thus, Atelodesmis Buquet currently includes 4 species.

It has been overlooked until now that Atelodesmis was described previous to Buquet (1857), in D’Orbigny’s (1841) Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle. Duponchel and Chevrolat (published in D’Orbigny 1841) (translated): “Genus of tetramerous Coleoptera , family of the Longicornes, established by Mr. Dejean in his last Catalog. According to the place he gives it, this genus belongs to the tribe of the Lamiaires of Mr. Serville, and returns to the branch of the Pogonocheraires of Mr. Mulsant. Mr. Chevrolat assigns to this genus the following characters: Body subcylindrical, slightly flattened dorsally. Elytra regularly rounded at apex of each elytron. Pronotum as long as wide, straight at base and apex, and on each side of which is provided at middle with a small spine, distinctly wide at its base. Head cut straight in front, convex and with a single furrow on frons. Antennae inserted a little above the anterior middle of the eyes, 12- segmented, the first 5 of which are covered with setae so thick that it is almost impossible to distinguish the joints; the next 7 denuded; tarsal claws very robust, simple. Only two species from Brazil are known, the A. vestita Dej. and the A. Mannerheimii . Here is the description of the latter: entirely dirty yellowish white; elytra streaked with greenish yellow veins; 2 longitudinal lines of the same color on the pronotum. The mandibles, eyes, setae of antennal segments 2-5, and apex of the remaining antennomeres are dark. The authorship of Atelodesmis is attributed only to Chevrolat because the dictionary entry (1841: 287) for the genus states “M. Chevrolat assigne à ce g. les charactères suiv- ant”…, while the authorship of A. mannerheimii is attributed to Duponchel and Chevrolat because both are cited as authors for the Atelodesmis entry without any other qualifications as to the author of the species. Atelodesmis vestita is a nomen nudum in Duponchel and Chevrolat (1841: 287), because it was not described but simply cited as a Dejean name, and hence does not satisfy the conditions established in Article 12 ( ICZN 1999). Accordingly, the type species of Atelodesmis Chevrolat, 1841 is A. mannerheimii Duponchel and Chevrolat, 1841 , by monotypy.

According to Sherborn and Palmer (1899) the title page of volume II of the Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle, where Atelodesmis was described, is dated as having being published in 1843, although the “Actual date of completed volume, with the authority” is 1842. However, an edition with title page dated 1842 also exists. According to Evenhuis (1990), the final livraison of volume II was published on 30 July 1842, however, the part which included Atelodesmis was actually published in November 1841.