Epytus, Dejean, 1836

Skelley, Paul E., 2009, Pleasing fungus beetles of the West Indies (Coleoptera: Erotylidae: Erotylinae), Insecta Mundi 2009 (82), pp. 1-94 : 46

Distribution. Epytus is endemic to Cuba.

Remarks. Early literature used Oocyanus Hope for this taxon. However, Alvarenga (1965, 1994) followed rules of priority (ICZN 1999, Article 23.1) and considered Epytus Dejean as the valid name. Although Dejean (1836) did not provide a description of the genus, inclusion of a validly described species validated the genus name by indication (ICZN 1999, Article 12.2.5). Thus, Epytus is the appropriate name.

Epytus was one of the earliest described Erotylidae genera. One character used by past workers to distinguish it from Ischyrus is the equal width of the terminal maxillary and labial palpomeres. In Ischyrus the terminal labial palpomere is generally not as wide as the terminal maxillary palpomere. This character is open to varying interpretations, depending if one compares ratios of the greatest width of the terminal palpomeres, or widths of the apical sensory areas. Although this character holds for many species, it is variable for mainland species of Ischyrus ( Skelley 1998b) and should not be used as the primary distinguishing character for either genus.

Most West Indian species that were described by Lacordaire as Ischyrus remained there until Curran (1944) transferred them all into Oocyanus based primarily on palp ratios. Curran’s transfer is justified, but their placement in his Oocyanus rendered the genus heterogeneous. Based on several characters, most of the species Curran placed in Oocyanus are herein transferred to the new genus Notaepytus . Thus, Epytus is restricted to a single unique species.

Dejean (1836) first indicated the synonymy of three species names listed under Epytus by placing them in alphabetical order within a single bracket. The first of Dejean’s names ( E. azureus ) is a nomen nudum, and appears only in synonymies. Lacordaire (1842) also considered the names listed by Dejean to be conspecific, but chose to use the earlier E. violaceus Sturm (1826) over E. cyaneus Duponchel (1825) , the latter of which has priority. Furthermore, Lacordaire used the epithet in combination with Oocyanus Hope (1841) instead of preserving the Dejean generic name Epytus .

Lacordaire’s (1842) use of Oocyanus violaceus was followed by most subsequent workers until Alvarenga (1965) applied the rule of priority (see ICZN 1999) and used E. cyaneus Duponchel , Alvarenga’s placement is maintained here.