Taophila mandjeliae (Jolivet, Verma & Mille, 2010) Jolivet, Verma & Mille, 2010

Gomez-Zurita, Jesus, 2017, Insights on the genus Acronymolpus Samuelson with new synonymies and exclusion of Stethotes Baly from the fauna of New Caledonia (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Eumolpinae), ZooKeys 720, pp. 65-75 : 69

Taophila mandjeliae (Jolivet, Verma & Mille, 2010) comb. n.

Remarks.

A third species of Eumolpinae originally ascribed to Stethotes , S. mandjeliae , was described based on several specimens collected near the summit of Mt. Mandjélia, in the northern part of the Massif du Panié ( Jolivet et al. 2010). However, conversely to the other species of Stethotes described by the same authors, this species does not belong to the genus Acronymolpus . This species unmistakably fits the nominotypical subgenus of Taophila instead ( Gómez-Zurita and Cardoso 2014), allied to T. subsericea Heller, 1916 and T. corvi Samuelson, 2010, and easily recognizable by the elongate shape, bicolor antennae, angulated sides of pronotum, which is darker than elytra, marked humeri wider than pronotum, and tapering elytra with partially aligned punctures and stiff hairs, amongst others. It remains to be seen if this species had been previously described by Samuelson (2010), but it may be a valid taxon considering the local area endemism of the Massif du Panié and that no other Taophila s. str. had been reported in the area. Until the validity of the species is settled, it is appropriate to propose the following transfer: Taophila mandjeliae (Jolivet, Verma & Mille, 2010), comb. n.