Sennius batesii ( Jekel, 1855 ) Jekel, 1855

Viana, Jéssica Herzog, 2016, Nomenclatural changes and lectotype designations in the seed-beetle genus Sennius Bridwell: with the synonymization of Megasennius Whitehead & Kingsolver (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae), Zootaxa 4175 (3), pp. 249-260 : 252

Sennius batesii ( Jekel, 1855) , comb n.

Bruchus batesii Jekel, 1855: 2 (description, distribution); Gemminger & Harold. 1873: 3220 (catalog); Pic, 1913: 17 (catalog). Acanthoscelides batesi Blackwelder, 1946: 758 (combination, catalog); Udayagiri & Wadhi, 1989: 39 (catalog). Bruchus subaenescens Pic, 1931: 139 (description, distribution) New Synonymy.

Acanthoscelides subaenescens: Blackwelder, 1946: 761 (combination, catalog); Udayagiri & Wadhi, 1989: 64 (catalog). Sennius subaenescens: Kingsolver, 1976: 403 (combination, citation).

Type material (4, BMNH): Bruchus batesii (1): Holotype with labels: 1, “ Type / H.T.” “ Type ” “53314” “ex Mus / W.W.&.” “Amazon / Bates” “Fry Coll. / 1905.100.” “ Bruchus / batesii Jekel / Ins. Saund.” “ Sennius batesii / ( Jekel, 1855) / Det. Viana & Ribeiro-Costa” “ Holotype / Bruchus batesii Pic, 1931 / J. H. Viana”.

Bruchus subaenescens (1): Holotype male with labels: “Corumb” “ type ” “ TYPE ” “ subaenescens / Pic” “ Holotype ♀ / Bruchus / subaenescens / Pic” “ Sennius / subaenescens / Pic / det. 75 / J. M. Kingsolver”.

Remarks. In the original description of Bruchus batesii, Jekel indicated only one specimen was studied. This specimen was received from BMNH, with labels identical to what was given in the original description, including Jekel's label “ Bruchus / batesii Jekel / Ins. Saund.”. A label was included to explicitly indicate this specimen as holotype. The female type of Bruchus batesii is in poor condition, with glue covering the ventral surface, partially covering the head and the lateral body, and there is a broken tooth on the hind femur. Only the external morphology was studied and compared with other Sennius species, since the type specimen of Bruchus batesii is a female. In Blackwelder’s catalog (1946), the specific name Acanthoscelides batesii ( Fåhraeus, 1839) was misspelled as A. batesi , with the subsequent paper ( Udayagiri & Wadhi, 1989) propagating this error. Following the instructions of ICZN (1999, Article 33.4), this species is here treated as Sennius batesii (NEW COMBINATION) based mainly on the characters: hind femur with one tooth at inner ventral margin, and internal sac of male genitalia with hinge sclerites.

I consider B. subaenescens Pic, 1931 (NEW SYNONYM) to be a subjective synonym of Bruchus batesii since there are no remarkable external differences. In the original description of Bruchus subaenescens, Pic does not indicate the number of specimens studied but Kingsolver (1976) designated as holotype the specimen studied.