Platypus transformis Schedl, 1936

Beaver, Roger A., 2018, A review of the genus Baiocis Browne, 1962 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Platypodinae), with new species, new synonymy and a key to males, Zootaxa 4434 (3), pp. 481-501 : 498-499

Platypus transformis Schedl

Platypus transformis Schedl, 1936a: 16

Platypus angusticeps Schedl, 1942: 203 . syn. n.

Taxonomy: Platypus angusticeps was transferred to Baiocis by Browne (1962: 651), but returned to Platypus by Schedl (1967). Wood and Bright (1992) list the species under Baiocis , and state that there are female syntypes in BMNH, but they are not in that museum, and were evidently not returned by Schedl (see comments in Beaver 1998). The senior author has examined the female specimen incorrectly labelled by Schedl as 'holotype' (NMW). It is a female specimen of Platypus transformis Schedl (specimens examined in BMNH, NMW and RAB).

Distribution: The distribution of the species extends from Sri Lanka through Malaysia and the Philippines to the Bismarck archipelago.

Biology: Almost all records of host trees are from the Dipterocarpaceae , and the species evidently has a preference for that family ( Browne 1961). Browne (1936) records the species attacking large living dipterocarp trees through wounds.