Canthidium (Neocanthidium) erythropterum (Lucas, 1859)

Cupello, Mario, 2018, On the types species of the New World dung beetle genus Canthidium Erichson, 1847 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae), with an annotated checklist of species, Zootaxa 4388 (4), pp. 451-486 : 468

Canthidium (Neocanthidium) erythropterum (Lucas, 1859)

Choeridium erythropterum Lucas, 1859: 101 [transferred to Canthidium by Harold 1969: 1005; here transferred to the subgenus Noecanthidium]. Type locality: Peru: Loreto: Ucayali: Sarayacu (“mission de Sarayacu”). Type material: Unsexed holotype (MNHN). Distribution: Peru (Lucas 1859) [Although Lucas (1859) expressly says that C. erythropterum type locality was the mission of Sarayacu, in Peru, Harold (1869a), when transferring this species to Canthidium , cited “Brasil. inter.” as its distribution range. This was later followed by Blackwelder (1944), Gillet (1911), and Martínez & Halffter (1986a), the latter two mentioning specifically the state of Mato Grosso as the place in Brazil where C. erythropterum occurred. The holotype of C. erythropterum , the only known individual of this species, was collected by Francis de Laporte, comte de Castelnau, during his 1840s expedition through South America, as explained by Lucas (1859). According to Papavero (1971), after spending a very hard time in the interior of Peru, Laporte arrived at the village of Sarayacu on 28 September 1846 and stayed there until 9 October, when he departed to explore other areas in that country. Although Laporte has also visited Mato Grosso during his expedition, neither Harold (1869a) nor any of the subsequent authors who cited that Brazilian state as part of C. erythropterum distribution indicated the source for that observation nor explained why they believed the Lucas (1859) original report was incorrect. Therefore, here I decided to follow the content of the original description and see Harold’s (1869a) modification as a lapse].