Oxysternon festivum festivum ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

Rosa, Cecilia Lozano De La, Cupello, Mario & Vaz-De-Mello, Fernando Z., 2024, The dung beetles of Venezuela (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): catalogue and updated distribution, European Journal of Taxonomy 959 (1), pp. 1-272 : 168-170

Oxysternon festivum festivum ( Linnaeus, 1758)

Fig. 64A

Scarabaeus festivus Linnaeus, 1758: 350 (original description). Type locality: Suriname. Name-bearing type: lectotype (unknown whereabouts), designated by Hielkema (2017) from a female collected by Daniel Rolander and illustrated in De Geer (1774: pl. 18 fig. 15), not the male specimen of unknown collector designated by Edmonds & Zídek (2004) from an illustration depicted in Rösel (1749: pl. Scarabaeorum Terrestrium Praef. Classis I, tab. B, fig. 8) (see Hielkema 2017). Note: although Linnaeus (1758) stated that Scarabaeus festivus originates generically from the New World (“Habitat in America”), the name of the collector he mentioned, Rolander, allows us to pinpoint the precise country where the type series was caught. The Swedish naturalist Daniel Rolander (1722‒1793) was one of the so-called Apostles of Linnaeus, a group of Linnaeus’s pupils who set off across the globe in search of specimens for their teacher’s systematic investigations ( Dobreff 2010). Linnaeus (1758) informed in the “Ratio Editionis” opening the 10 th edition of his Systema Naturae that the Rolander material he was going to describe came from two places, Suriname and the Lesser Antillean island of Sint Eustatius. Indeed, these were the only places visited by Rolander in the sole time he went to the Americas, between 1755 and 1756 ( Papavero 1971; Dobreff 2010). As Oxysternon festivus is not found in the Lesser Antilles, Rolander’s series must have been caught in Suriname, where the species is known to occur and be abundant ( Edmonds & Zídek 2004; Hielkema & Hielkema 2019). If still needed, this is further confirmed by De Geer (1774: 316), who, writing from the very same material collected by Rolander and studied by Linnaeus, a single female eventually designated as the lectotype by Hielkema (2017), expressly stated that the species lived in Suriname. There is no room for doubt, therefore, that the former Dutch colony is the type locality. As for the status of the De Geer female as the lectotype, it seems to us that it would be more properly regarded as the holotype by monotypy, for Hielkema (2017) himself provided compelling evidence that it was the sole specimen available to Linnaeus for the original description. Whether a lectotype or a holotype, however, it is undoubtedly the name-bearing type, and the kind of typification is of little practical relevance.

Phanaeus hilaris MacLeay, 1819: 131 (original description). Type locality: Guyana. Name-bearing type: lectotype (MAMU), designated by Edmonds & Zídek (2004), not examined.

Scarabaeus festivus – Linnaeus 1767: 552 (cited). — MacLeay 1819: 131 (cited).

Phanaeus festivus – MacLeay 1819: 131 (redescription). — Erichson 1848: 564 (cited for Guyana). — Heyne & Taschenberg 1908: 68 (list). — Bodkin 1919: 213 (cited for Guyana).

Oxysternon festivum var. hilaris – Nevinson 1892: 8 (list).

Oxysternon festivum – Gillet 1911b: 87 (catalogue). — d’Olsoufieff 1924: 112 (diagnosis, distribution).— Blackwelder 1944:210 (list,distribution).— Martínez &Clavijo 1990:155 (comments). — Forsyth & Gill 1993: 70 (list). — Feer 2000: 32 (list for French Guiana); 2008: 54, 56, 62 (ecology); 2013: 767 (list for French Guiana); 2016: 527–538 (conservation). — Vítolo 2000: 597 (key); 2004: 288 (diagnosis, distribution). — Medina et al. 2001: 140 (checklist for Colombia). — Larsen et al. 2008: 1294 (ecology, list). — Feer & Pincebourde 2005: 30 (ecology, list). — Quintero & Roslin 2005: appendix A (ecology). — Medina & Pulido-Herrera 2009: 61 (diversity). — Brûlé et al. 2011b: 121; 2014: 183 (list for Montagne Pelée). — Larsen 2011: 99 (ecology, list for Suriname); 2013: 97 (list for Suriname). — Price & Feer 2012: 327 (list). — Ferrer-Paris et al. 2013: 110 (list). — Bicknell et al. 2014: table S1 (ecology). — Feer & Boissier 2015: 169 (list). — Boilly et al. 2016: 90 (key).

Oxysternon (Oxysternon) festivum – Gámez & Mora 2000: 17 (list). — Arnaud 2002b: 71 (key). — Edmonds & Zídek 2004: 12 (revision, diagnosis). — Hielkema 2017: 4 (designation of lectotype Scarabaeus festivus ).

Oxysternon (Oxysternon) festivum festivum – Vaz-de-Mello 2000: 194 (checklist for Brazil). — Arnaud 2002b: 71 (key, distribution). — Edmonds & Zídek 2004: 13 (key). — Boilly et al. 2016: 95 (list, comments).

Material examined

VENEZUELA ‒ Bolívar • 1 specimen; Río Parguaza ; 100 m; 15 May 2004; D. García leg.; CEMT . ‒ Táchira • 3 specs; San Cristóbal ; Sep. 1994; CEMT .

Distribution

Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Brazil.

Subregions of Venezuela

Plains, Delta plain of the Orinoco River and coastal swamp of the San Juan River, Peneplain of the Caura and Paragua rivers, Peneplain of the Casiquiare River–Upper Orinoco, System of hills and low piedmont mountains of the Guiana Shield, System of low mountains and hills Imataca-Cuyuní of Northeast Guyana Shield, Andes mountains, and Guiana Shield.

Literature records

Gámez & Mora 2000: 17 ( Venezuela). — Edmonds & Zídek 2004: 10, 12 ( Venezuela: Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro and Monagas). — Ferrer-Paris et al. 2013: 110 (list).

Figures

Fig. 64. Species distribution. A. Oxysternon festivum festivum (Linnaeus, 1758). B. Oxysternon silenus Castelnau, 1840. Green diamond = CEMT collection data; black circle = literature data.