Hylesinopsis fasciata (Hagedorn)

Beaver, Roger A, 2010, Taxonomic notes on the afrotropical genera Hapalogenius Hagedorn, Hylesinopsis Eggers, and Rhopalopselion Hagedorn (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae), ZooKeys 56, pp. 157-170 : 162

Hylesinopsis fasciata (Hagedorn)

Kissophagus fasciatus Hagedorn, 1909: 737.

Hylesinopsis fasciatus (Hagedorn): Wood and Bright 1992: 94.

Chilodendron fasciatus (Hagedorn): Schedl 1963b: 261.

Kissophagus punctatus Eggers 1932: 28, syn. n.

I have compared two specimens of Kissophagus punctatus (NMW), which had been compared with the damaged holotype by Eggers and Schedl respectively, with a series of specimens of Hylesinopsis fasciata in my own collection from Tanzania and Nigeria. The latter had earlier been compared to a syntype of that species, and other specimens from East Africa in NHML. Eggers (1932) distinguished the two species by the more elongate shape, stronger shine, more distinct puncturation, and the presence of granules on the basal part of the elytra. Comparisons suggest that Kissophagus punctatus lies at one end of the range of variation found in Hylesinopsis fasciata . The small differences noted by Eggers (1932) are insufficient to separate Kissophagus punctatus as a separate species, and the latter is, therefore, placed in synonymy. Wood and Bright (1992) cite a holotype for Hylesinopsis fasciata . However, Hagedorn described the species from "compluria specimina", indicating that he had a series of syntypes before him.