Cassida octopunctata Fabricius, 1787

Sekerka, Lukáš & Barclay, Maxwell V. L., 2014, Fabrician types of Cassidinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) deposited in the Natural History Museum, London, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54 (2), pp. 657-684 : 674-675

Cassida octopunctata Fabricius, 1787

( Figs 31–33 )

Cassida octopunctata Fabricius, 1787: 63 .

= Basiprionota privigna (Boheman, 1862) (misidenti¿cation): SPAETH (1925: 393), SPAETH (1926 c: 117), BOROWIEC (2009: 447).

Type locality. Cassida octopunctata : ‘Siam’ [= Thailand].

Type material examined. Cassida octopunctata : SYNTYPE: ♀, pinned, ‘ Cassida 8-punctata | e Siam | Fabr. Mant. Ins. n. 8 [w, hw, s, bf]’ ( BMNH).

Prioptera bipuncticollis : HOLOTYPE: ♀, pinned, ‘Type [w, p, s, circle label with red frame] || Java. | Hors¿eld. | 60–15. [w, p, cb] || Java | E.I.C. [w, hw, s] || 725 [w, hw, s] || 60•15 | E.I.C. [w, p, s] || Basiprionota | bipuncticollis | Bhn. n. sp. [b, hw, s, Boheman‘s hw] || Prioptera | bipuncticollis | Type Bhn [w, hw by Gahan, cb]’ ( BMNH).

Prioptera privigna : Syntype: ♀, pinned, ‘Type [w, p, s, circle label with red frame] || Java [hw] | Baly Coll. | 1905—54. [w, p, cb] || Prioptera | Privigna | Boh | Java [w, hw by Baly, cb] || Coll | Hors¿eld | Type [hw by Baly on underside of previous label]’ ( BMNH).

Status in ZIMSEN (1964). P. 90; No. 1310. ‘London, 1 specimen’.

Original description. ‘C. rufescens thorace punctis duobus, elytris quatuor cyaneo nigris. Habitat in Siam Mus. Dom. Banks.

Statura et magnitudo C. deustae. Antennae rufescentes apice nigrae. Thorax rufescens punctis duobus paruis nigris. Elytra punctata, rufescentia punctis quatuor maioribus cyaneo nigris 2. 2. Corpus rufescens.’ ( FABRICIUS 1787).

Current status. Basiprionota octopunctata ( Fabricius, 1787) .

Remarks. There is only a single specimen in the Banks collection, as reported by ZIMSEN (1964), and quite likely it is the only one Fabricius used for the description. BOHEMAN (1850) transferred the species to Prioptera Hope, 1840 (now a synonym of Basiprionota Chevrolat, 1836 ) and placed it in the group of species with the convex basal part of the explanate pronotal margin connected to the disc. This concept was also followed by SPAETH (1925) in his revision of Prioptera . However, the type specimen has the pronotal disc completely separated from the explanate margin by a sulcus, and is conspeci¿c with B. privigna Boheman, 1862 sensu SPAETH (1925) . We have examined the type of B. privigna , also housed in BMNH, and found that it is conspeci¿c with B. bipuncticollis ( Boheman, 1856) , which was until now considered as synonym of B. octopunctata .

As B. octopunctata and B. bipuncticollis are two distinct species, the latter is removed from synonymy and its speci¿c status is restored. Basiprionota privigna was until now considered as a valid species (i.e. BOROWIEC & ĜWIĉTOJAēSKA 2014) but it seems that Spaeth never examined its type as it falls according to his key ( SPAETH 1925) under B. octopunctata ( Fabricius, 1787) . Most likely Spaeth followed BOHEMANތ s (1850) concept of the latter species as there is a specimen in the BMNH collection identi¿ed as B. octopunctata by Boheman but actually matching with B. bipuncticollis and B. privigna . BOHEMAN (1850, 1856) most likely did not examine the Fabrician type of B. octopunctata , as he stated that it had the explanate margin of the pronotum posteriorly convex, while the type specimen of B. octopunctata has it flat and completely separated from the disc.

The syntype of B. privigna was collected in Java by Hors¿eld, like the holotype of B. bipuncticollis (both also preserved in BMNH) and the latter differs only in the presence of two black spots on the disc of pronotum. The following new synonymy is proposed: B. bipuncticollis ( Boheman, 1856) = B. privigna (Boheman, 1862) syn. nov. On the other hand, B. privigna sensu auctt. is conspeci¿c with the true B. octopunctata . Therefore all published records of B. octopunctata since BOHEMAN (1850) refer to B. bipuncticollis .

Currently, true B. octopunctata is known with certainty only from Sumatra and Singapore. It is listed for Thailand because of the type, but that may be incorrectly labelled, since no other specimen is known from Thailand. The record from Java most likely refers to the type locality of B. privigna , as we were unable to assess any further records from this island.

Figures

Figs 31–36. 31–33 – Cassida octopunctata Fabricius, 1787, syntype; 34–36 – Cassida sexpustulata Fabricius, 1781, syntype. (31, 34 – habitus dorsal; 32, 35 – habitus lateral; 33, 36 – labels).