Peridinetus sexguttatus (Fabricius), comb. n.

(Figs. 8, 18)

Curculio ovalis auct. (not Linnaeus, 1760; not Marsham, 1802). Drury (1773: in index), Westwood in Drury (1837: [64]).

Baridius ovalis: Westwood in Drury (1837: [64]) [unavailable, see discussion below].

Curculio sexguttatus Fabricius, 1775: 138 . Fabricius (1781: 176; 1787: 106; 1793: 430), Gmelin (1790: 1763), Olivier (1791: 509), Herbst (1795: 466).

Rhynchaenus sexguttatus (Fabricius): Fabricius (1801: 470), Olivier (1807: 205).

Ephimerus sexguttatus (Fabricius, not Boheman, 1843): O’Brien & Wibmer (1984: 297).

Ephimerus sexguttatus Boheman, 1843: 332 (not Fabricius, 1775). Lacordaire (1863: 621), Gemminger & Harold (1871: 2441), Leng & Mutchler (1914: 471), Gowdey (1926: 26), Klima (1934: 143), Blackwelder (1947: 826), O’Brien & Wibmer (1982: 178).

Diagnosis. Peridinetus sexguttatus can be recognised by its whitish, fasciate vestiture (Fig. 8) and is the only Peridinetus species that occurs in Jamaica.

Material examined. Digital images of 2 syntypes of C. sexguttatus Fabricius (HMUG, Hunter Collection). JAMAICA. Portland: Ecclesdown (CMNC 1); Manchioneal (USNM 2); Millbank (CWOB 4); Port Antonio (CNCI 3, CWOB 3, USNM 3); Sommerset Falls (CWOB 4). Saint Andrew: Clydesdale (CWOB 1); Content Gap (CMNC 2, CWOB 3); Kingston (CMNC 2); Hardwar Gap (CMNC 1, CNCI 2, CWOB 1, JPPC 1); Hermitage Dam (USNM 2); Holywell Forest Camp (USNM 2); Saint Peter’s (CMNC 1, CWOB 1); Whitefield Hill, Blue Mts. (CWOB 1). Saint Ann: Fern Gully (CMNC 2, CWOB 1); Moneague (CNCI 1, CWOB 1); Ocho Rios (USNM 5). Saint Catherine: Worthy Park (CWOB 1). Saint James: Catadupa (USNM 2). Saint Thomas: Bowden Peninsula (CNCI 10); Bath (CMNC 1, CNCI 6); Morant Point (UPRM 1); Portland Gap (CNCI 1); Penlyne Castle (CMNC 1); without site (UPRM 1). Trelawny: Barbecue Bottom (CWOB 2); Windsor (CMNC 1); Come Night Cave, nr. Quick Step (USNM 4). Total 81 specimens.

Distribution. The species is endemic to Jamaica (Fig. 18)

Plant associations. Unknown.

Discussion. Drury (1773: 60) described and illustrated this species without a Linnaean name and referred it to Curculio ovalis Linnaeus, 1767: 612 (actually 1760: 180) in the index. Westwood (in Drury 1837) recognised the misidentification but maintained the epithet when he referred the species tentatively to Baridius . Because Westwood’s name is the combination of a misidentification, it is nomenclaturally unavailable. However, the species had meanwhile been redescribed by Fabricius (1775) as C. sexguttatus . Boheman (1843) described the species for a second time, as Ephimerus sexguttatus (type supposedly in Uppsala, not studied). Schönherr’s (1843) comparison with the Brazilian Anchylorhynchus variabilis, a species placed in the Erirhininae at that time but currently in Derelomini (O’Brien & Wibmer 1984), separated the species from the Peridinetini; it remained in Erirhininae or incertae sedis for the next 140 years (Lacordaire 1866, Gemminger & Harold 1871, Leng & Mutchler 1914, Gowdey 1926, Klima 1934, Blackwelder 1947), until O’Brien & Wibmer (1982: 8) transferred Ephimerus to the Baridinae: Peridinetini. The only included species, E. sexguttatus, is very closely related to P. concentricus and P. p o e y i, and these three differ from other Peridinetus species by having basally separate tarsal claws, considered as the plesiomorphic state. Because the tarsal claws of Piper -associated Baridinae were modified independently several times in the larger species, e.g., Embates (Prena 2005), and other synapomorphies have not been recognised in Peridinetus species with modified claws, Ephimerus is here synonymised with Peridinetus .