Spondotriplax australiae ( Lea, 1922 )

Skelley, Paul E., Leschen, Richard A. B. & Liu, Zhenhua, 2021, Nomenclatural notes for some Australian Erotylinae (Coleoptera: Erotylidae), Zootaxa 4966 (1), pp. 69-76 : 71

Spondotriplax australiae ( Lea, 1922)

Tritoma australiae Lea 1922: 295–296 .

Hedista tricolor Weise 1927: 34 . Lawrence 1988: 53 (synonymy).

Hedista australiae (Lea) . Lawrence 1988: 53 (generic combination).

Spondotriplax australiae (Lea) . Chûjô & Chûjô 1990: 54 (generic combination).

Comments. Hedista Weise, 1927 was described and compared with Aulacocheilus by Weise (1927). It was placed near Aulacocheilus in the Encaustini in all subsequent catalogs. Lawrence (1988) studied the holotypes of both Tritoma australiae Lea, 1922 (Tritomini) and Hedista tricolor Weise, 1927 (Encaustini) and synonymized the two as Hedista australiae ( Lea, 1922) . Apparently unaware of this, Chûjô & Chûjô (1989: 89) retained Hedista tricolor in the Encaustini and, the following year, moved T. australiae into Spondotriplax Crotch, 1876 (Tritomini) ( Chûjô & Chûjô 1990: 54).

The combination of Lawrence’s (1988) species synonymy and Chûjô & Chûjô’s (1990) transfer of T. australiae into Spondotriplax , resulted in the unrecognized synonymy of Hedista Weise, 1927 with Spondotriplax Crotch, 1876 . We confirmed that Hedista has all of the diagnostic characters that place it solidly in Spondotriplax . Until there is a revision of Spondotriplax , we agree with the placement of T. australiae in Spondotriplax and officially make the generic synonymy.