Bledius paradoxus Gridelli, 1936

Makranczy, György, 2011, On the identity of Bledius paradoxus (Staphylinidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 51 (1) : -

Bledius paradoxus Gridelli, 1936 , syn. nov. = B. corniger Rosenhauer, 1856

Type material examined [ labels separated by ‘\’, lines by ‘;’]. Bledius paradoxus : SYNTYPES: Syntype 1 (male, dissected):‘ Basilicata ; Lavello; leg. Leoni [handwritten] \ Typus![handwritten] \ [on the back:] Gridelli 1936 \ Typus (printed) \ Bledius (s. str.) ; paradoxus; mihi; det. Gridelli 1936 \ Bledius ; corniger Rosenhauer ; det. Makranczy, 2002’ ( MCST). Syntype 2: ‘ Basilicata ; Lavello; Leoni (printed) \ Bledius (s. str.); paradoxus; Typus! mihi; det. Gridelli 1936 \ Bledius ; corniger Rosenhauer ; det. Makranczy, 2002’ ( MSNR).

Notes on taxonomy. Bledius paradoxus was regarded as a very odd taxon not encountered since its description. GRIDELLI (1936: 60) described the species on the basis of two specimens from the same locality (they might have been originally on the same pin because one set of labels is hand-copied from the printed other). From dorsal view it appears as they are without a pronotal horn, however, a look at the anterior pronotal edge at high magnification from the front or side reveals a clean, smooth-edged hole in the cuticle where the horn is missing. It is unsure whether the horns were removed purposely to make the specimens look as an undescribed species, or it was the result of some developmental anomaly (e.g. damage in the pupal stage by a predator chewing off the horns) or other accident. Both syntypes were examined and Bledius paradoxus is hereby formally synonymized with Bledius corniger Rosenhauer, 1856 , a species already known from South Italy. HERMAN (1986) placed B. paradoxus (without a personal examination of the types, but based on characters other than the pronotal horn) in the B. unicornis complex of the B. gigantulus species group. This is absolutely correct, as Bledius corniger is a member of this group.