Chrysis politus Harris, 1776

Rosa, Paolo, 2024, A journey through the history of the British Chrysididae (Hymenoptera): unexpected taxonomic problems, new records and description of a new species, Journal of Natural History 58 (25 - 28), pp. 840-889 : 866-867

Chrysis politus Harris, 1776

Chrysis politus Harris, 1776, p. 70 . Holotype ♀; England (type lost).

Synonym of Omalus aeneus (Fabricius, 1787) : present paper.

Chrysis politus Harris has not been mentioned in any subsequent publication following its original description. The species description matches perfectly with Chrysis aenea Fabricius, 1787 [currently Omalus aeneus (Fabricius, 1787) ] and it is clearly its senior synonym. However, Omalus aeneus is the name currently in use, being a common and widespread Palaearctic species, also introduced in the Nearctic region ( Bohart and Kimsey 1982); moreover, it is the type species of Omalus Panzer, 1801 . For these reasons, the application of the Principle of Priority has to be set aside and I here apply to the reversal of precedence in accordance with the Art. 23.9 of the Code. In fact, the prevailing usage must be maintained when the two conditions are both met: (1) the senior synonym has not been used as a valid name after 1899 and (2) the junior synonym has been used for this species as a valid name in at least 25 works published by at least 10 authors in the immediately preceding 50 years and encompassing a span of not less than 10 years (eg Banaszak 1980; Morgan 1984; Leclercq 1988; Jacobs and Oehlke 1990; Kimsey and Bohart 1991; Kunz 1994; Mingo 1994; Strumia 1995; Linsenmaier 1997, 1999; Niehuis 2001; Schneider 2002; Rosa 2006; Jacobs and Kornmilch 2007; Schmid-Egger 2010; Arens 2014; Paukkunen et al. 2014, 2015; Martynova 2015; WiŚniowski 2015; Gogala 2016; Özbek and Strumia 2019; Pauli et al. 2019; Wiesbauer et al. 2020; Falahatpisheh et al. 2021; Frommer and Tischendorf 2021). I therefore establish the reversal of precedence according to Art. 23.9.1, giving the senior synonym Chrysis politus Harris, 1776 the status of nomen oblitum and junior synonym Chrysis aenea Fabricius, 1787 the status of nomen protectum.

Although Omalus politus ( Harris, 1776) is considered a synonym of O. aeneus , the name remains available and therefore Omalus politus (du Buysson, 1887) , original combination Ellampus politus , becomes a secondary junior homonym and should be renamed. However, in in this case also I suggest preserving the use of the name politus (du Buysson) because it is in prevailing use in major works (eg du Buysson 1891–1896; Trautmann 1927; Linsenmaier 1959; Kimsey and Bohart 1991, 1999), while the senior synonym has not been used as a valid name after 1899.