Chilocorus nigrita ( Fabricius 1798 )

Leeper, John R., 2014, Nomenclatural and Taxonomic Notes on Names of Hawaiian Coccinellidae (Coleoptera), Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 46, pp. 1-7 : 1-2

Chilocorus nigrita ( Fabricius 1798) .

The use of Chilocorus nigrita (Fabricius) represents a correction in spelling from the use of Chilocorus nigritus (Fabricius) .

Justification: Although ITIS lists this name as Chilocorus nigritus (Fabricius) (TNS: 186963), Samways (1989) justified the use of the spelling Chilocorus nigrita (Fabricius) stating “R. G. Booth (pers. comm.) has pointed out that strictly the name should be C. nigrita , as Fabricius (1798) originally named it Coccinella nigrita and ‘ nigrita ’ being a noun cannot change gender.”

In addition, Booth (1998) provided the following comments and listed the following synonyms: “The etymology of the name nigrita is uncertain, but its treatment as a noun, rather than as an adjective, is consistent with its original use by the early taxonomic authors ( Grenstead 1951). Thus as Fabricius originally used the combination Coccinella nigrita , nigrita being a noun, does not change its ending when combined with a generic name of different gender from the original.”

Coccinella nigrita Fabricius 1798: 79 .

Chilocorus nigritus: Mulsant 1850: 463 ; Crotch 1874: 184; Korschefsky 1932: 240; Bielawski 1957: 86; Davis 1959: 65; Kapur 1967:171; Nagaraja and Hussainy 1967:252; Miyatake 1970: 318, 333; Davis 1972: 188; Chazeau et al. 1974: 278; Tsuda 1974: 317; Davis 1974: 357; Leeper 1976: 287; Greathead and Pope 1977: 264; Chazeau 1981:17; Funasaki et al. 1988: 113; Nishida 2002: 50.

Chilocorus nigrita: Bielawski 1957: 86 ;

Samways 1989: 345; Booth 1998: 362;

Booth et al. 1990: 90.

Names Used in Hawaii: Leeper (1976: 287) and Nishida (2002: 50) treated this species as Chilocorus nigritus (Fabricius) and noted that as the only spelling of the name used in Hawaiian literature to date. The UHIM currently lists this species as Chilocorus nigritus (Fabricius) .

This is the first use of Chilocorus nigrita (Fabricius) in Hawaiian literature.