Octodesmus episternalis Lesne, 1901

Octodesmus episternalis Lesne, 1901: 618 .

When he described the genus Octodesmus, Lesne (1901) did not designate a type species. Fisher (1950) designated Octodesmus episternalis Lesne as the type species. The name is based on a series of syntypes in several museums (Lesne 1901). The senior author has examined syntypes of the species in MNHN. Amongst them is a specimen labelled as lectotype by J.M.Vrydagh, but the designation was never published. In order to fix the identity of the species, we here designate this specimen as lectotype. It bears the labels: “Carin/Asciuli Cheba/ 1200-1300m /L. Fea I-88//³// Octodesmus / episternalis Lesne / type P. Lesne vid.// LECTOTYPE /J.M. Vrydagh”. Both Lesne (1901) and Fisher (1950) note that this is the only known species of Bostrichidae in which the inner margin of the metepisternum is convex towards the ventral midline.