Pelidnota sybarita Harold, 1869 incertae sedis

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 sybarita Harold, 1869 incertae sedis

Pelidnota sumptuosa Laporte, 1840: 123 [original combination, junior homonym of Pelidnota sumptuosa (Vigors, 1825)].

Pelidnota sybarita Harold, 1869a: 124 [original combination, new replacement name for Pelidnota sumptuosa Laporte].

Pelidnota luxuriosa Blackwelder, 1944 synonym.

Pelidnota luxuriosa Blackwelder, 1944: 237 [original combination, new replacement name for Pelidnota sumptuosa Laporte].

Pelidnota sumptuosa (Vigors) [syn. by Machatschke 1970: 158].

Pelidnota (Pelidnota) luxuriosa Blackwelder [new subgeneric combination and revised species status by Machatschke 1972: 25].

Pelidnota luxuriosa Blackwelder [removal of subgeneric classification by Soula 2009: 43].

Pelidnota sybarita Harold [objective synonymy].

Distribution.

BRAZIL ( Laporte 1840, Harold 1869b; Blackwelder 1944, Soula 2009).

Remarks.

Laporte (1840) described Pelidnota sumptuosa from Brazil. Laporte’s (1840) specimen is coppery-green with bronze reflections. The antennae are brownish-red and the elytra are “large”, smooth, and have three weak striae ( Laporte 1840). The venter is setose, the protibiae are tridentate, and the tarsi are “thickened” ( Laporte 1840). The name Pelidnota sumptuosa Laporte is a junior homonym of Pelidnota sumptuosa (Vigors). Harold (1869a) detected this case of homonymy and replaced the preoccupied name Pelidnota sumptuosa Laporte with Pelidnota sybarita . Subsequent authors (e.g., Ohaus) ignored the case of homonymy and Harold’s (1869a) proposed replacement name Pelidnota sybarita . Blackwelder (1944), probably unaware of Harold’s (1869a) replacement name, proposed the name Pelidnota luxuriosa as a replacement for Pelidnota sumptuosa Laporte. Because Harold’s (1869a) name has nomenclatural priority and these names are based on the same type specimen, we consider Pelidnota luxuriosa Blackwelder an objective synonym of Pelidnota sybarita Harold.

Machatschke (1970, 1972) continued the use of Pelidnota luxuriosa as the valid name for this species in his discussions and catalogs. Machatschke (1970) discussed this case homonymy and concluded that P. luxuriosa Blackwelder and P. sumptuosa Vigors were synonyms and that P. sumptuosa Vigors had nomenclature priority. However, Machatschke’s (1972) catalog did not reflect these proposed changes. Instead, P. sumptuosa Vigors was listed as a junior synonym of P. ludovici Ohaus, while P. luxuriosa was considered a valid name ( Machatschke 1972). Soula (2009) revalidated P. sumptuosa Vigors and discussed Laporte’s (1840) description of P. sumptuosa (= P. sybarita ), but he was unable to find the type specimen. Soula (2009) did not recognize Harold’s (1869a) replacement name, P. sybarita . We list P. sybarita as incertae sedis until the type specimen of Laporte (1840) is discovered and the identity of this species can be evaluated.

Pelidnota luxuriosa Blackwelder is the name for this species in prevailing usage and has been cited as such since Blackwelder (1944). However, reversal of precedence is not possible under ICZN Article 23.9.1 which states, "prevailing usage must be maintained when the following conditions are both met: (23.9.1.1.) the senior synonym or homonym has not been used as a valid name after 1899, and (23.9.1.2.) the junior synonym or homonym has been used for a particular taxon, as its presumed valid name, in at least 25 works, published by at least 10 authors in the immediately preceding 50 years and encompassing a span of not less than 10 years". In this case, Article 23.9.1.1 is satisfied but Article 23.9.1.2 is not satisfied, because the name P. luxuriosa Blackwelder has only appeared in four publications ( Blackwelder 1944, Machatschke 1970, 1972, Soula 2009). We do not think it is desirable to suppress the name P. sybarita Harold under Article 23.9.3 because the type specimen for this species is apparently lost and the species is so poorly known.