Stolas cruentata (Erichson, 1847)

Cyrtonota cruentata Erichson, 1847: 152 (original description).

Mesomphalia deplorabunda Boheman, 1857: 41 (original description), syn. nov.

Type localities. Cyrtonota cruentata: ‘ Republica Peruana’; Mesomphalia deplorabunda: original type locality ‘ Bolivia’ modified here to Bolivia, Department of Cochabamba, Territory of the Yuracaré people according to the additional information from the Register of the BMNH collections.

Type material examined. Cyrtonota cruentata: HOLOTYPE: ♀, pinned, ‘11101 [w, p, s] || Type [red, p, cb] || cruentata | Er. Boh. | Perù v.Tschudi [g, hw, cb] || HOLOTYPE | des. L. Borowiec [r, p, cb] || HOLOTYPUS | Cyrtonota | cruentata | Erichson, 1847 | des. L. Borowiec [r, p, cb, bf]’ (ZMHB).

Mesomphalia deplorabunda: HOLOTYPE: ♀, pinned (missing right antenna): ‘Type [w, p, s, c, rf] || Bolivia [w, hw, s, circle label] || 46 | 70 [hw on underside of preceding label] || deplorabunda | Bhn. n. sp. [b, hw by Boheman, s] || Mesomphalia | deplorabunda | Type Boh. [w, hw by Gahan, cb]’ (BMNH).

Remarks. Describing Cyrtonota cruentata, ERICHSON (1847) did not state how many specimens he had at his disposal. However, he mentioned a single length measurement and also according to the ZMHB register number there was only a single specimen hence considered as holotype by monotypy.

BOHEMAN (1857) described Mesomphalia deplorabunda presumably from a single specimen as he gave a single length measurement and did not indicate any specimen in his collection (BOHEMAN 1862). This taxon was enigmatic to subsequent authors and was listed only in catalogues and SPAETH (1914) transferred it to Pseudomesomphalia (= Stolas). In my opinion, the holotype of S. deplorabunda is only a uniformly black specimen of S. cruentata as the two taxa are nearly identical besides colouration. Typical S. cruentata has a red and slightly elevated reticulation on elytra. This reticulation is structurally also present in S. deplorabunda but is black and its punctation appears slightly coarser than in typical S. cruentata . I consider these differences as intraspecific variability and hereby synonymize S. deplorabunda with S. cruentata .

Distribution. Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru (SPAETH 1942; BOROWIEC 1996, 2002, 2009c).