Taurodemus sharpi ( Blandford, 1898 )

Atkinson, Thomas H., 2018, A new species, new synonymy and new records of Mexican and Central American Xyleborini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), Zootaxa 4442 (2), pp. 345-350 : 348

Taurodemus sharpi ( Blandford, 1898)

Xyleborus sharpi Blandford, 1898: 199 .

Xyleborus sharpi sharpi Blandford, 1898 . Subspecies designation: Wood 1974: 35.

Taurodemus sharpi sharpi Blandford, 1898 . Combination: Wood, 1982: 792.

Xyleborus sharpi lenis Wood, 1974: 35 . new synonymy.

Taurodemus sharpi lenis ( Wood, 1974) . Combination: Wood 1982: 792.

Blandford (1898: 199) described X. sharpi from three syntypes: two from Veracruz (Toxpam, Atoyac) and one from Paraiso, Guatemala. Blandford refers to slight differences in the degree of “gloss” in the elytral excavation without direct reference to individual specimens. Wood (1974: 35) described Xyleborus sharpi lenis as a new subspecies from Veracruz, Mexico, thereby implicitly designating a nominate subspecies, X. sharpi sharpi . Wood (1974, 1982, 1992, 2007) based his recognition of subspecies lenis (Veracruz, Mexico) and sharpi ( Costa Rica, Panama) on slight morphological differences and geographic separation. In subsequent treatments ( Wood 1982: 791, Wood & Bright 1992: 786, Wood 2007: 460) he treated the two subspecies as having disjunct distributions with X. sharpi lenis occurring in southeastern Mexico and X. sharpi sharpi occurring in Costa Rica and Panama.

In 1982 (p. 792) Wood designated a lectotype for X. sharpi sharpi citing the specimen from “Paraiso, prob. Panama ”, explicitly choosing to interpret the lectotype locality of sharpi Blandford as Panama, despite acknowledging that Blandford (1896: 199) stated that the locality was in Guatemala, later confirmed by Selander and Vaurie (1962). Among other considerations, this renders his arguments on disjunction of the two “subspecies” irrelevant. Subsequent collections in Oaxaca and Chiapas ( Mexico) have closed the geographical gap between Veracruz (type locality of lenis ) and Guatemala (type locality of sharpi ). A new record from Honduras reported below further reduces any geographical disjunction. Some of Wood’s specimens labeled as T. sharpi sharpi have the declivity more shagreened in appearance, but this character is variable in both Mexican and Costa Rican specimens. In none of his publications did Wood make any mention of the specimens cited by Blandford from Veracruz.

Minute morphological differences may seem to justify taxonomic recognition when allopatry is involved. However I have examined numerous specimens from the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas and all specimens in the NMNH identified as either sharpi or lenis . In my opinion the minute differences cited by Wood simply do not merit subspecific recognition and I believe that there is a single species found from southeastern Mexico to Panama.