Pelidnota unicolor unicolor (Drury, 1782)

Moore, Matthew R., Jameson, Mary L., Garner, Beulah H., Audibert, Cedric, Smith, Andrew B. T. & Seidel, Matthias, 2017, Synopsis of the pelidnotine scarabs (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Rutelinae, Rutelini) and annotated catalog of the species and subspecies, ZooKeys 666, pp. 1-349 : 1

Pelidnota unicolor unicolor (Drury, 1782)

Scarabeus unicolor Drury, 1782: 61 [original combination].

Pelidnota unicolor (Drury) [new combination by Blanchard 1851: 211]

Pelidnota (Pelidnota) unicolor (Drury) [new subgeneric combination by Ohaus 1918: 24]

Pelidnota unicolor (Drury) [removal of subgeneric combination by Soula 2009: 91-93]

Melolontha druryana Herbst, 1790 synonym.

Melolontha druryana Herbst, 1790: 163 [original combination].

Pelidnota unicolor (Drury) [syn. by Blanchard 1851: 211].

Pelidnota testacea Laporte, 1840 synonym.

Pelidnota testacea Laporte, 1840: 122 [original combination].

Pelidnota druryana (Drury) [syn. by Burmeister 1844: 403].

Distribution.

BRAZIL: Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Santa Catarina ( Herbst 1790; Laporte 1840; Burmeister 1844; Blanchard 1851; Harold 1869b; Ohaus 1908a, 1913, 1918, 1934b; Guimarães 1944; Machatschke 1972; Krajcik 2008; Soula 2009). PERU ( Ratcliffe et al. 2015).

Types.

The following specimen is at CCECL. 1 invalid ♂ neotype: "Salesopolis São Paulo Brésil M. SOULA det 19 [obverse] II/2000// Pelidnota unicolor (Dr.) M. SOULA det 2008// Néotype 2008 Scarabeus unicolor Dr Soula det." (47030861). Genitalia card-mounted underneath the invalid neotype. Box 4618683 SOULA.

Remarks.

Soula (2009: 92) designated a neotype specimen for Pelidnota unicolor unicolor . Soula (2009) did not state where this neotype was deposited. Article 75.3.7 (ICZN 1999) requires a statement that the "neotype is, or immediately upon publication has become, the property of a recognized scientific or educational institution, cited by name, that maintains a research collection, with proper facilities for preserving name-bearing types, and that makes them accessible for study". We recovered Soula’s invalid neotype specimen in his formerly private collection (now at CCECL). Soula´s (2009) neotype is invalid because Soula’s collection was private and Soula (2009) did not make a statement of neotype deposition.

We treat Pelidnota unicolor var. infuscata Ohaus (Fig. 94 ) as unambiguously infrasubspecific and thus as an unavailable name. Ohaus (1913) clearly described this taxon as a variety. For the purpose of Art. 45.6.4. ICZN, Ohaus’s (1913) publication described both subspecies and varieties (sometimes both for the same species, e.g., Homonyx chalceus ), thus unambiguously allowing us to treat this name in an infrasubspecific manner. Ohaus (1913) clearly and unambiguously described "var. infuscata " as an infrasubspecific name under P. unicolor . As such, this name is not treated as a valid species group name. Ohaus (1908) made reference to this dark variety and subsequently named it as a variety ( infuscata ) in 1913. The specimen in ZMHB labeled as a type is, in fact, a dark color morph of P. unicolor based on comparisons with the nominotypical form. This specimen was labeled as an invalid type in ZMHB.

Figures

Figure 94. Pelidnota unicolor var. infuscata Ohaus (unavailable name) (valid name Pelidnota unicolor [Drury]) invalid type female from ZMHB. A Dorsal habitus B Lateral habitus C Specimen labels.