Novapus bifidus Lea, 1910

Allsopp, Peter G. & Hudson, Peter J., 2019, Novapus bifidus Carne, 1957, a primary homonym and synonym of Novapus bifidus Lea, 1910 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae), Zootaxa 4560 (3), pp. 576-578 : 576-578

Novapus bifidus Lea, 1910 ( Figs. 1–5 )

Novapus bifidus Lea, 1910: 217 , Figs 50–51 (cephalic horns), Fig. 53 (prothoracic excavation, male). Lectotype here designated, male in SAM labelled ( Fig. 2 ) a) “ bifidus / Lea TYPE ♂ / Cape York ” [handwritten], b) “Para-type” [typeset, circular, yellow edged], c) “ Paratype ♂ / Novapus / bifidus mihi / P.B. Carne det. 1952” [handwritten and typeset], d) “ Novapus / bifidus Lea / Cotype ♂ ” [handwritten], e) “ LECTOTYPE ♂ / Novapus bifidus Lea / des. P. Allsopp & / P. Hudson 2019” [typeset].

Novapus bifidus Carne, 1957: 71 , Fig. 159 (mentum), Fig. 170 (anterior head, female), Fig. 176 (parameres, male), Map 7 (distribution). Holotype male in ANIC labelled ( Fig. 6 ) a) “Type” [typeset, circular, red edged], b) “CY” [Cape York] [handwritten], c) “ E.W. Ferguson / Collection” [typeset], d) “ Novapus / bifidus Lea / Id. by A.M. Lea ” [handwritten and typeset], e) “ Holotype ♂ / Novapus / bifidus mihi / P.B. Carne det. 1952” [handwritten and typeset], f) “ANIC Database No. / 25 064235” [typeset], g) “ANIC / Image” [typeset on yellow]. New synonymy.

Novapus bifidus Lea: Lea 1919 : 237; Daniels 2004: 694; Krajcik 2005: 49; Krajcik 2012: 169; Schoolmeesters 2018.

Novapus bifidus Carne : Endrỏdi 1974: 49, 50, 51, Fig. 95 (parameres, male); Endrỏdi 1985: 408, 409, fig. 1452 (parameres, male); Carne & Allsopp 1987: 310; Cassis & Weir 1992: 406; Dechambre 2005: 31, unnumbered figures (dorsum and lateral, female); Krajcik 2012: 169; Atlas of Living Australia 2018.

Status of types. Lea (1910) saw at least one male adult, at least one female adult and a pupa but did not say how many of each gender of the adults he had. However, given that he gave no variation in the length of the adults of each gender, there was possibly only one of each. He stated the type locality as “Cape York ”. There are two specimens in SAM marked as types ( Fig. 1 ): a male, clearly marked as from Cape York and with Lea’s handwritten “Type ♂ ” label and designated a paratype of N. bifidus Carne ( Fig. 2 ); a female, labelled only as “ Queensland ” with Lea’s register number of 14268 and “TYPE” in red ( Fig. 3 ). These are undoubtedly syntypes of Lea’s taxon and are the two paratypes of N. bifidus Carne in SAM (one with the registration number 14268) noted by Cassis & Weir (1992). We have not located the second male in SAM seen by Carne (1957) or the pupa seen by Lea (1910). We hereby designate the male in SAM as the lectotype of N. bifidus Lea in order to preserve the stability of nomenclature. The female in SAM we consider a paralectotype of N. bifidus Lea. We have labelled both appropriately. Both are also paratypes of N. bifidus Carne ; the holotype of that taxon, also seen by Lea, and its labels are shown in Figs. 4–6 .

The date of publication of Lea’s paper has been variously given as 1910 or 1911. The title page of the journal suggests March 1911, but Volume 23 was issued in two parts—Part 1, containing Lea’s paper, in August 1910 (p. 256), and Part 2 in March 1911 (p. 616).

Distribution. Both taxa were described from Cape York [10.69°S, 142.53°E] and nearby Thursday Island [10.58°S, 142.22°E], most apparently collected by Hermann Elgner ( Carne (1957) and Carne & Allsopp (1987) give the collector as “Elgin”). It has also been collected further south at Station Creek near Mount Carbine [16.60°S, 145.18°E] and Southedge near Mareeba [16.76°S, 145.28°E] ( Carne & Allsopp 1987) and at 40 Mile Scrub [18.10°S, 144.85°E] (Queensland Museum), all also within the dry tropics of northeastern Queensland.

Natural history. Lea (1910) noted that Elgner had collected adults and pupae and seen numerous larvae in the nests of termites and the broken adults collected at 40 Mile Scrub came from a termite mound. Other Novapus spp. are also known from similar habitats ( Carne 1957; Carne & Allsopp 1987; P.M. Hutchinson, personal communication 2018).

Figures

FIGURES 1–3. Novapus bifidus Lea: 1, lectotype male (on left) and paralectotype female (on right) in SAM, dorsal view; 2, lectotype male, labels; 3, paralectotype female, label (collage of photographs by Peter Hudson, © South Australian Museum).

FIGURES 4–6. Novapus bifidus Carne: 4, holotype male in ANIC, dorsal view; 5, holotype male in ANIC, lateral; 6, holotype male, labels (collage of photographs by Cate Lemann, © Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).