Pseudomeira flavipennis sicula ( Seidlitz, 1865 )

Bellò, Cesare & Baviera, Cosimo, 2011, On the Sicilian species of Pseudomeira Stierlin (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), Zootaxa 3100, pp. 35-68 : 51

Pseudomeira flavipennis sicula ( Seidlitz, 1865)

Peritelus (Peritelus) subdepressus var. siculus: Seidlitz, 1865: 318 ; Marseul, 1872: 85; Stierlin, 1883: 593;Heyden et alii, 1883: 151; Vitale, 1892: 225.

Peritelus (Curculio) subdepressus var. siculus Bertolini, 1872: 168 .

Peritelus flavipennis var. siculus Vitale, 1890: 38 ; Bertolini, 1899: 89; Vitale, 1900a: 19; Luigioni, 1929: 872; Porta, 1932: 61.

Pseudomeira flavipennis ssp. siculus (sic!): Abbazzi & Osella, 1992: 304

Pseudomeira flavipennis f. s icula: Abbazzi et al., 1995: 23.

Pseudomeira flavipennis: Pierotti & Bellò, 1997 , 164; Pierotti & Bellò, 1998: 105.

Pseudomeira flavipennis sicula: Sparacio, 1999: 138 ; Osella et al., 2005.

Pseudomeira sicula: Colonnelli, 2003: 49 ; Abbazzi & Maggini, 2009: 62.

The nominotypic subspecies occurs in southern France (Hérault, Gard, Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse, Ardèche, Alpes-Maritimes, Drôme, Aude, Ariège, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Lozère, Basses-Alpes) and in north-western Italy (Piedmont, Asti). The subspecies sicula , was described as a "variety" from Sicily without more precise locality ( Seidlitz 1865). No type can be found in either FAI or SEI, whereas in TOU there are two examples labeled "Sicile", which are absolutely identical to those from France. Considering that this characteristic species has never (re)collected in Sicily, it is almost sure that the mentioned examples were mislabeled. We are thus confident in excluding P. flavipennis from the Sicilian fauna, and in establishing the following synonymy: Pseudomeira flavipennis (Jacquelin du Val, 1852) [= Peritelus flavipennis var. siculus Seidlitz, 1865 , syn. rev.].