Laparocerus incomptus ( Wollaston, 1865 )

Machado, Antonio, 2006, The type material of the species of Laparocerus Schönherr, 1834 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Entiminae), Journal of Natural History 40 (35 - 37), pp. 2001-2055 : 2021-2022

Laparocerus incomptus ( Wollaston, 1865) , bon. spec.

Lichenophagus (Amyntas) incomptus Wollaston 1865 , Appendix p 55.

Type locality. Sabinosa, El Hierro, Canary Islands ( UTM 27 R 0785255 3073522). Neotype: 1„ [El Hierro, Islas Canarias /Sabinosa, Pozo de la Salud, 30 m / 23-2-2005, Rumex lunaria / # 4127, leg. A. Machado]. [NEOTIPO/ Lichenophagus incomptus / Wollaston, 1865 (5 Laparocerus )/des. A. Machado, 2005]. TFMC (reg, CO-15502), Santa Cruz de Tenerife ( Figure 9B ).

Remarks. The description of this species was based on a single female sent to Wollaston by M. de Marseul (Paris) as Canarian, but with no reference to the island of origin or the collector. Following the description there is a footnote (1865, p 56): ‘‘Since the above was written, I have had some reason to suspect that the type from which my diagnosis of the L. incomptus was compiled (but which unfortunately has been returned to Paris, so that I cannot now re-examine it) may possibly have been but a very small and immature (female) specimen of the Atlantis tibialis —slightly aberrant, and perhaps obtained in the island of Hierro’’. He received subsequently a second specimen from Marseul (see 1865, p 328 footnote), and confirmed his supposition. Wollaston knew L. tibialis originally (1864) from Tenerife and La Palma, and later (1865) also from El Hierro, having been collected there by the Messrs Crotch. The synonym has been generally accepted since then, but the case is more complicated. According to molecular data (to be published), the three islands are inhabited by different—although very similar—species. In 2002, the curator Mlle. Hélène Perrin and I were not able to find Wollaston’s holotype in Paris. Thus, I consider it a better solution to establish a neotype from El Hierro. I have abundant specimens from that island and they are indeed of smaller size compared with specimens from Tenerife or La Palma. Moreover, Lichenophagus incomptus is the type species by monotypy of Amyntas Wollaston, 1865 , described originally as subgenus of Lichenophagus Wollaston, 1854 , and later transferred by Alonso-Zarazaga and Lyal (1999) as valid subgenus of Laparocerus .

Figures

Figure 9. (A) Neotype of Omias tessellatus Brulle´, 1839; (B) neotype of Lichenophagus incomptus Wollaston, 1865.