Tenebrio gigas Linnaeus, 1767

Ferrer, Julio & Holston, Kevin, 2009, Identities of Tenebrio Linnaeus types at Uppsala, and the resulting changes in old darkling beetle names (Insecta: Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), Zootaxa 2308 (1), pp. 29-42 : 37-38

5. Tenebrio gigas Linnaeus, 1767 .

HOLOTYPE, male, labelled “ Mus. Gust. A. / gages ”, det. Blaps gigas (L., 1767) ( Fig. 9 ). Linnaeus Coll., UUZM.

Original description. “14. T (enebrio) apterus niger, thorace aequali, coleoptris laevis, truncatis. Habitat Hispania, Barbaria. Similibus Tenebrio mortisagus , sed duplo major.”

Type status. The holotype of Tenebrio gigas L., 1767, preserved in the UUZM, is a teneral specimen with strongly dehiscent elytra .

Remarks. Two primary homonyms are noted for the species-group name in combination with Blaps and Tenebrio . The original name Tenebrio gigas (L.) of Blaps gigas (L., 1767), is a primary homonym of Tenebrio gigas (L., 1763, p. 13 and 1767, p. 674), which is the original name combination for an Amazonian darkling beetle with the valid name Mylaris gigas (L., 1767). The type of this species is preserved in the Linnean Society of London. This species belongs to the Neotropical genus Mylaris Pallas, 1781 , a senior synonym of Nyctobates Guérin Meneville, 1844 (Spilman, 1973) .

Löbl and Smetana (2008) cited 1767 as the year of description of this species, but the original description appeared in 1763, in a rare paper, overlooked by many workers ( Linnaeus (1763, p. 13) in which a darkling beetle from Surinam is described under the name Tenebrio gigas . There is no doubt about the identity of this insect, compared in size with Scarabaeus cervus and recognisable by several characters, mentioned by Linné.

The name Blaps gigas (L., 1767) appears in references to the Mediterranean species; the nomenclature and species identification of Blaps gigas (L., 1767) and Mylaris gigas (L., 1763, 1767) have been assessed recently ( Ferrer & Siliansky 2008). At the end of volume 1, in the errata-index of Systema Naturae, Second Edition ( Linnaeus 1767), Tenebrio gigas L., 1767, was listed, under the unavailable name “ Tenebrio gages ” as a synonym of Tenebrio gages L. This species was accomodated in the new genus Blaps by Fabricius (1775) under the unjustified emendation Blaps gages (L.).

Blaps gages Fabricius (1775: 254) and “ Blaps gigas auct.” Tenebrio gigas L., 1767 is a primary homonym of Tenebrio gigas L., 1763, a species collected by Daniel Rolander (1723–1793) in Surinam ( Ferrer & Siliansky 2008).

Use of the name Tenebrio gages (L., 1767) by Herbst (1784: 1, pl. 27, fig. 5) is a misidentification for an undetermined species of the South African genus Psammodes , probably P. gibbus (L.).

The species-group names gigas L., 1763, and gigas L., 1767, were not recognized as homonyms for congeneric taxa in the genus Blaps or Tenebrio , and the junior homonym gigas L., 1767, does not have to be replaced because the species to which these names refer are in different genera (ICZN 2000, Art. 59).

Figures

FIGURE 9. UUZM Linnean darkling beetle, HT, Tenebrio gigas L., det. Blaps gigas (L.).