Mycotretus duodecimguttatus duodecimguttatus ( Duponchel, 1825 )

Pecci-Maddalena, Italo Salvatore de Castro, Lopes-Andrade, Cristiano & Skelley, Paul, 2023, Catalogue of Mycotretus Lacordaire, 1842 (Coleoptera: Erotylidae: Tritomini): an annotated, illustrated and historical approach, European Journal of Taxonomy 876 (1), pp. 1-182 : 62-63

68. Mycotretus duodecimguttatus duodecimguttatus ( Duponchel, 1825)

Erotylus ocellatus Germar, 1824: 613 [nec Olivier, 1792]. Type locality: “Brasilia”.

Erotylus duodecimguttatus Duponchel, 1825: 53 . Type locality: “ Brésil ”.

Mycotretus ocellatus – Lacordaire 1842: 164. — Crotch 1876: 441. — Gemminger & Harold 1876: 3694. — Kuhnt 1909: 74; 1911: 51. — Mader 1942: 173; 1951: 215. — Deelder 1942: 88. — Blackwelder 1945: 467. — Alvarenga 1994: 24. — Skelley 1998b: 15.

Mycotretus duodecimguttatus – Lacordaire 1842: 164. — Crotch 1876: 441. — Gemminger & Harold 1876: 3694. — Kuhnt 1909: 74; 1911: 51. — Blackwelder 1945: 467. — Alvarenga 1994: 24. — Skelley 1998b: 15. — McHugh & Chaboo 2015: 278.

Primary type

Lectotype, here designated ( Fig. 13C )

BRAZIL • “polyomatus chevrolat [green label, handwritten] \ LECTOTYPE [printed], Erotylus duodecimguttatus Duponchel, 1825 [red label, handwritten] \ Mycotretus duodecimguttatus (Duponchel) [handwritten], det. I. Pecci-Maddalena 2017 [printed]”; MRSN.

Other specimens examined

BRAZIL • 1 ♀ (dissected); “ Rondônia – BRASIL [printed], Ouro Preto do Oeste, X. 1983 - Roppa e Silva [handwritten]”; MNRJ • 1 ♀ (dissected); “Coleção M. Alvarenga [printed] \ REPRÊSA RIO GRANDE , Guanabara BRASIL [printed], II. 1967 [handwritten], F.M. Oliveira [printed] \ Mycotretus duodecimguttatus (Dup. 1826) [handwritten], M. Alvarenga det. [printed] 1984 [handwritten]”; MNRJ • 1 ♂ (dissected); “Coleção M. Alvarenga [printed] \ REPRÊSA RIO GRANDE , Guanabara BRASIL [printed], XI. 1960 [handwritten], F.M. Oliveira [printed] \ DZUP 371288 [printed]”; DZUP .

Distribution

South, North and Southeast Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

Remarks

1) There is a historical taxonomic mess regarding the validity of the specific names “ duodecimguttatus Duponchel ” and “ ocellatus Germar ”. Here we clarify it, as follows: (i) Olivier (1792) described Erotylus ocellatus , transferring, in 1808, this species to Eumorphus Weber, 1801 (see Olivier 1808) and, currently, the species is under Epopterus Chevrolat, 1844 (Endomychidae) ; (ii) Germar (1824) described a different species with the name “ Erotylus ocellatus ”, creating a primary homonymy with E. ocellatus Olivier ; (iii) One year later, Duponchel (1825) described “ Erotylus duodecimguttatus Duponchel ”; (iv) Lacordaire (1842) synonymized Erotylus ocellatus Germar with Erotylus duodecimguttatus Duponchel , transferred the species to Mycotretus and preserved Duponchel’s species name. He stated the following: “Je conserve à cette espèce le nom de 12- guttatus que lui a donné M. Duponchel, quoique auparavant M. Germar l’ait décrite sous d’ ocellatus , attendu qu’Olivier (Encyc. méth. ins. VI, p. 437) a déjà employé ce nom pour une espèce qui m’est inconnue, mais qui appartient sans aucun doute à cette famille”; (v) After Lacordaire (1842), and before Alvarenga (1994), all authors considered “ ocellatus Germar ” the valid name, as follows: Gemminger & Harold (1876), Crotch (1876), Kuhnt (1909, 1911), and Blackwelder (1945) placed “ duodecimguttatus ” under “ ocellatus ”, and Mader (1942, 1951) and Deelder (1942) mentioned only the name “ ocellatus ”, with no reference to “ duodecimguttatus Duponchel ”; (vi) Thus, Alvarenga (1994), as well as Lacordaire (1842), placed the name “ ocellatus Germar ” under “ duodecimguttatus Duponchel ” stating “nom. praeoc.” for “ ocellatus Germar ”.

Here, we agree with Lacordaire and Alvarenga. Therefore, the name Erotylus ocellatus Germar, 1824 is considered a primary homonym of Erotylus ocellatus Olivier, 1792 , based on articles 53 and 60 of the CODE: “53.3. Homonyms in the species group. Two or more available species group names having the same spelling are homonyms if they were originally established in combination with the same generic name (primary homonymy) (…)” and “60.1. Substitute names. A junior homonym [Art. 53] must be rejected and replaced either by an available and potentially valid synonym [Art. 23.3.5] or, for lack of such a name, by a new substitute name [Art. 60.3]”. Since Mycotretus duodecimguttatus ( Duponchel, 1825) is an available synonym of Mycotretus ocellatus ( Germar, 1824) – a primary homonym – the former must be the valid name. 2) The lectotype of M. duodecimguttatus (Duponchel) is kept in the Collection of M. le marquis de Brême (MRSN). Dejean (1836) indicated the synonymy of the specific name “ polyomatus chevrolat” listed under the name “ Duodecimgutattus. Dej.”, by placing both names within a single set of brackets. The name “ polyomatus ” is a nomen nudum, and appears only in the catalogue of Gemminger & Harold (1876) under the name “12-guttatus Duponch”, both names being synonyms of M. ocellatus Germar. We have only located that “ polyomatus ” specimen, among the Dejean specimens in the Brême collection. Duponchel (1825) did not mention Chevrolat’s name on his description of M. duodecimguttatus . However, it is known that Chevrolat exchanged specimens with notable entomologists throughout his life (Latreille, Duméril, Dejean and Guérin) ( Reiche 1884). We considered that this “ polyomatus specimen” was already kept in the Brême collection, along with many of Dejean’s specimens, by the time Duponchel (1825) made his descriptions. Therefore, we selected the “ polyomatus ” as the lectotype of M. duodecimguttatus .

Figures

Fig. 13. A–D. Duponchel primary types (dorsal, labels). A–A’. Lectotype of Erotylus coronatus Duponchel, 1825 [currently Mycotretus coronatus (Duponchel)]. B–B’. Lectotype of E. decoratus Duponchel, 1825 [currently M. decoratus (Duponchel)]. C–C’. Lectotype of E. duodecimguttatus Duponchel, 1825 [currentlyM. duodecimguttatus (Duponchel)].D–D’. Lectotype ofE. melanophthalmus Duponchel, 1825 [currently Mycomystes melanophthalmus (Duponchel)]. E–E’. Specimen of M. minutus (Duponchel, 1825) from the DZUP collection (Brazil).F–F’. Specimen of M. nigropunctatus (Duponchel, 1825) from the Brême collection (MRSN). Scale bars: A–D = 1 mm; E = 0.5 mm; F = see Material and methods.