Cryptogenius miersianus Westwood, 1842

Costa-Silva, Vinícius & Vaz-de-Mello, Fernando Z., 2023, Not everything is what it seems: the study of type specimens of Cryptogenius Westwood, 1842 species (Coleoptera: Hybosoridae: Anaidinae) reveals a new species and new synonyms, Journal of Natural History 57 (1 - 4), pp. 175-192 : 182-183

Cryptogenius miersianus Westwood, 1842

( Figures 2a–e , 4 )

Cryptogenius miersianus Westwood, 1842a: 41 ; Westwood 1842b: 457 [same contents as 1842a]; Westwood 1846: 171 (pars).

Cryptogenius fryi Arrow, 1909: 501 (new subjective synonymy); Bruch 1911: 543; Arrow 1912: 63; Blackwelder 1944: 219; Scholtz 1982: 19; Scholtz et al. 1987: 193; Costa et al. 1988: 112; Grebennikov et al. 2004: 527–528; Ocampo 2006: 156; Ocampo and Ballerio 2006: 182; Ballerio and Grebennikov 2016: 44, 50.

Cremastochilodius tristis Krikken 1975: 191 (new subjective synonymy)

Cryptogenius tristis Krikken 1987: 15 ; Ocampo 2006: 156 (synonym with C. fryi ).

Type specimen examined of Cryptogenius miersianus

LECTOTYPE, HEREBY DESIGNATED (Ơ OUMNH) ( Figure 2a–c ). First label [white with red border]: ‘TYPE | WESTWOOD | Trans. Ent. Soc. | 4. P. 171 | T. 12. 2.1. | Coll. Hope Oxon̍. Second label [diamond-shaped, blue]: ‘W̍. Third label [white, unknown handwriting]: ‘ Cryptogenius | miersianus. | Westw. | Brazil | D. Miers̍. Fourth label [white with black border]: ‘TYPE COL: 535 2/2 | Cryptogenius | miersianus Westw. | HOPE DEPT. OXFORD̍. Fifth label [white]: ‘Scarab. Lapar. | = C. fryi | arrow [J. Krikken̍s handwriting] | det. J. Krikken 1975 ̍. Sixth label [red with black frame, printed]: ‘ LECTOTYPE / Cryptogenius miersianus /Westwood, 1842/ des. V. Costa-Silva, 2022̍ ( Figure 2c ). Type locality: According to the label and Westwood (1842a), Brazil ( Figure 2c ); more specifically, as we shall argue, likely the city of Rio de Janeiro. According to an anonymous author ( Anonym 1879), the British botanist John Miers (1789–1879) lived in Rio de Janeiro between 1831 and 1838, collecting several specimens of the fauna and flora within the administrative limits of the city. It is likely that the now lectotype, originating from his collection, was among the material collected by him there. Note: Westwood (1842a) did not specify how many specimens he examined for the original description, nor does the description provide enough elements for an inference. Following Recommendation 73F ( ICZN 1999) we assume that the sole type specimen known to us is a syntype. To fix the name-bearing type to a single specimen ( ICZN 1999 – Art. 74.3), we designate this sole known syntype as the lectotype ( Figure 2a–c ).

Remarks. The lectotype of C. miersianus clearly belongs to the same species as the holotype of C. fryi , hence we propose C. fryi as a new junior subjective synonym of C. miersianus . At the same time, the species encompassing the Amazonian and possibly Panamanian and Costa Rican populations that up to now had been erroneously referred to in the literature as C. miersianus (e.g. Westwood 1846; Lacordaire 1855; Harold 1869; Preudhomme de Borre 1886; Arrow 1909, 1912; Blackwelder 1944; Scholtz 1982; Scholtz et al. 1987, 1988; Ratcliffe 2002; Ocampo 2006; Ocampo and Ballerio 2006; Hielkema and Hielkema 2019), having no name available to denote it, will be described below as the new species Cryptogenius westwoodi .

Type specimen of Cryptogenius fryi Arrow, 1909 (new subjective synonymy) HOLOTYPE, BY ORIGINAL MONOTYPY (Ơ BMNH), not examined. Type locality: Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro ( Brazil), collected in October 1851 by the English entomologist Alexander Fry ( Arrow 1909). Note: Even with the holotype not examined by us, the type locality and the detailed description provided by Arrow (1909), particularly the mentioned presence of a remarkable hooked tooth on the profemur, is enough to assign the same to the Atlantic Forest species and, therefore, to synonymise C. fryi with C. miersianus .

Figures

Figure 2. Lectotype of Cryptogenius miersianus (Ò OUMNH) in (a) dorsal and (b) lateral views; (c) labels. Legs and apex of male genitalia of a non-type specimen: (d) parameres in dorsal view (black arrow shows the constriction near the apex); (e) the anterior right leg of a male specimen, in ventral view, showing the hook on the femur (black arrow), and (f) the left hind tibia showing the crenulation in the outer margin (black arrows). Scale bars: a–c, e, f = 1 mm; d = 0.5 mm. Photographs (a, b): Keita Matsumoto, BMNH.

Figure 4. Distribution map of known records of Cryptogenius species: C. miersianus (red circles) and C. westwoodi sp. nov. (blue circles). Red and blue stars represent records from the literature that possibly refer, according to the known geographical distribution, to C. miersianus and C. westwoodi sp. nov., respectively, found in Ide et al. (1990), Ratcliffe (2002) and Ocampo (2006). These records illustrated with stars represent specimens not personally examined by the authors.