Rhopaea pilosa Blackburn, 1911

Allsopp, Peter G., 2020, Clarification of the status of the types of Australian Melolonthini (Coleoptera Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) described before 1950, Zootaxa 4885 (4), pp. 451-486 : 481

Rhopaea pilosa Blackburn, 1911

Rhopaea pilosa Blackburn, 1911: 191 .

Rhodaea pilosa: Lea 1912 : xxxvi (in error).

Lectotype (designated by Britton 1978: 44) male: Type H. T. (circular red ringed, typeset) | 816 (handwritten in red) T (handwritten) | Blackburn coll. 1910-236 (typeset) | RHOPAEA Pilosa, Blackb. (handwritten) | aedeagus dissected out and mounted on card | my lectotype label; in NHML.

Paralectotypes. 1 male: SA (handwritten) | pilosa Blackb. (handwritten) | I.4532 R hopaea pilosa Blackb. S. Australia (handwritten) Cotype (handwritten in red, at right angle) | my paralectotype label | aedeagus on card ; 1 male: 816 Boro [35.15°S, 149.66°E] (handwritten in red) | Rhopaea pilosa Blkb. Co-type (handwritten) | my paralectotype label; all in SAM .

Blackburn (1911) did not define the type series, seeing an unknown number of males (vide Articles 73.1.2, 72.1.1) from Boro. Lea (1912) noted that the ‘type’ had been sent to NHML, and Britton (1978) referred to a “ holotype ” male from Boro in NHML and a “ paratype ” male from Boro in each of ANIC and SAM. Houston & Weir (1992) interpreted Britton’s (1978) incorrect reference to a holotype as a lectotype designation. Given that Britton (1978) clearly nominated the specimen in NHML as the holotype, I follow Houston & Weir (1992) in accepting a lectotype designation by Britton (vide Article 74.5). The other two paralectotypes are in SAM.