Tribalus brouni ( Broun, 1880 )

Leschen, Richard A. B. & Ôhara, Masahiro, 2017, Phylogenetic Placement of Abraeus vividulus Broun and Notes on New Zealand Histeridae (Coleoptera), The Coleopterists Bulletin 71 (3), pp. 537-551 : 549

Tribalus brouni ( Broun, 1880)

( Fig. 8A )

Tribalus brouni ( Broun 1880: 166) . Combination by Mazur 1990: 3.

Abraeus brouni Broun 1880: 166 . Epithet originally attributed to Lewis but corrected by Mazur 1984: 11.

Abraeus phyllobius Broun 1914: 101 . New synonymy.

Tribalus phyllobius ( Broun 1914: 101) . Combination by Wenzel 1955: 601.

Notes. Broun (1880) described this species in the genus Abraeus , along with A. vividulus , stating that “This insect, of which I sent specimens to Mr. G. Lewis, has been named, but not, to my knowledge, described by that gentleman as yet. It is the smallest of the Histeridae (N.Z.) yet brought to light.” Broun attributed the species to Lewis, but it is must ascribed to Broun, who included a short and morphologically meaningless description. We could not locate this species’ name in Bickhardt (1910, 1916, 1917), and the correct attribution to Broun was made by Mazur (1984) who listed the species as incertae sedis et nomina nuda. It was treated by Mazur (1990) as a member of Tribalus . We examined a single BMNH specimen matching the locality, Mount Manaia (= Whangarei Heads), and another specimen from the FMNH sharing the same exact labels that we believe may have been part of the original series that Broun sent to Lewis. Both are treated as syntypes. The one in the FMNH may have been part of an exchange between both collections and bears a label by G. J. Arrow as Abraeus brouni Broun and another by R. Wenzel noting its identity as a member of Tribalus . Also noted on Wenzel’ s label was a comparison made to A. phyllobius that Broun (1914) described from three specimens collected from Great Barrier Island. The three specimens were examined and confirmed as conspecific with T. brouni by R. Booth (personal communication), forming the basis of the synonymy with T. brouni and the generic placement as footnoted by Wenzel (1955).

Type Material Examined. Abraeus brouni . Lectotype ( BMNH; Fig. 8A ): card-mounted (sex undetermined), “299. [olive-colored label]// Mount Manaia. [in Broun’ s hand] // New Zealand [red underline] Broun Coll. Brit. Mus. 1922–482. // Abraeus brouni [in Broun’ s hand] // LECTOTYPE Abraeus brouni Broun, 1880 designated by R. A.B. Leschen, 2016 [red label]” ( Fig. 8B ) Paralectotype ( FMNH): same as the lectotype, but lacking Broun’ s handwritten label and “299. // Abraeus brouni, Broun G. J. Arrow [name in Arrow’ s hand] // Compared with Type [in red print] Tribalus (abraeus) brouni Broun (?Lewis) & Abraeus phyllobius RLW ’52 see type notes [Wenzel’ s hand]”. Abraeus phyllobius . Lectotype ( BMNH): card-mounted (sex undetermined), “3412. [handwritten, unknown hand] // Gt. Barrier. March 1911. [in Broun’ s hand] // Abraeus phyllobius [in Broun’ s hand] // New Zealand [red underline] Broun Coll. Brit. Mus. 1922–482. // Type [circular label, redbordered]” . Paralectotype ( BMNH) : same data, but mounted dorsal and specimen paler, “ Syntype [circular label, blue-bordered]” .

Figures

Fig. 8. Primary types and original labels pinned with Abraeus species. A, B) A. brouni, C, D) A. brunneus, E, F) A. vividulus.