Scarabaeus satelles Lichtenstein, 1796 : 5

Maldaner, Maria E., Cupello, Mario, Ferreira, Daniela C. & Vaz-De-Mello, Fernando Z., 2017, Type specimens and names assigned to Coprophanaeus (Megaphanaeus) d’Olsoufieff, 1924, the largest New World dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Phanaeini), Zootaxa 4272 (1), pp. 83-102 : 88-89

Scarabaeus satelles Lichtenstein, 1796: 5 . Unavailable name.

Nomenclatural history: The name Scarabaeus satelles was proposed in a catalogue of specimens to be sold at auctions titled Catalogus musei zoologici ditissimi Hamburgi, d III Februar 1796 ( Lichtenstein 1796). On page 5, Scarabaeus lancifer appears as the forty-seventh species in Lichtenstein’s list and is followed by the description of a beetle named by him as ‘ Scar. satelles ; nobis ’, from ‘ America austr. ’ ( South America ), which Lichtenstein thought was a ‘mere variety’ of S. lancifer (‘ Vix mera varietas Sc. lanciferi’). As a literature reference to this name, Lichtenstein (1796) cited figure 1 of plate 23 of Voet’s (1766) book ( Figure 2 A, left), one of the illustrations listed by Linné (1767) in his description of S. lancifer ; figure 2 of the same plate ( Figure 2 A. right), also mentioned by Linnaeus , was identified by Lichtenstein as S. lancifer . In his description of S. satelles, Lichtenstein also referred to an illustration on plate XV of Jablonsky & Herbst’s (1789) book Natursystem aller bekannten in- und ausländischen Insekten 2, which is an exact reproduction of Voet’s (1766) figure 1 3. So, at least in part, the type series of S. satelles was mixed with that of S. lancifer , hence both names could potentially be considered as objective synonyms. Indeed, they were eventually synonymized by Harold (1870) (not Nevinson [1892], as stated by Edmonds & Zídek [2010]) and so remained in all revisions and catalogues published so far (e.g., Gillet 1911; d’Olsoufieff 1924; Blackwelder 1944; Edmonds & Zídek 2010).

Nonetheless S. satelles is not an available name, having been suppressed through Opinion 1820 of the ICZN (1995). Although Lichtenstein (1796) presented a brief description for S. satelles that satisfies the provisions of the Code, the ICZN (1995) used its plenary powers to suppress Lichtenstein’s (1796) catalogue (as well as its reprint from 1797) for nomenclatural purposes following a request by Kerzhner (1994). Kerzhner’s main argument was that Lichtenstein’s work was overlooked by most of the nineteenth-century zoologists and, therefore, the eventual 2. See Bousquet (2016) for dates and authorship of this work, which is sometimes erroneously cited as being authored by Herbst only.

discovery that some of the names proposed in that book were senior synonyms of names widely used as valid by modern authors would have caused unnecessary instability. By its decision, the ICZN (1995) decided to suppress the new names proposed by Lichtenstein (1796) with the exception of 23 names especially requested by Kerzhner (1994); Scarabaeus satelles was not among those exceptions and therefore it must be considered as unavailable by having been published in a work suppressed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Scarabaeus lancifer figures mentioned by Linné (1767). (A) Voet’s (1766) figure 1 and 2 of plate XXIII. (B) Voet’s (1766) figure 38 of plate XXVII. (C) Marcgrave’s (1648) figure of ‘ Taurus’.