Lordithon lunulatus (LINNAEUS 1760)

Assing, V., 2008, On the taxonomy and zoogeography of some Palaearctic Paederinae and Xantholinini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 40 (2), pp. 1237-1294 : 1273

Lordithon lunulatus (LINNAEUS 1760)

Staphylinus austriacus SCHRANK 1781: 237 f.; nov.syn.

Paederus austriacus: SCHRANK (1798: 653) .

C o m m e n t: In the recent Palaearctic catalogue ( SMETANA 2004), Staphylinus austriacus SCHRANK is listed as a nomen dubium in the genus Paederus FABRICIUS. The whereabouts of the Schrank collection is not indicated by HORN et al. (1990) and GAEDIKE (1995), suggesting that it is lost. The original description, which is based on an unspecified number of syntypes from "Viennae", is - as was usual at the time - very short and mainly focuses on the coloration (" Staphylinus niger ; pedibus, abdominisque basi testaceis; elytris fuscis"... "Lucide testacei, seu potius cerei coloris sunt antennarum bases, pedes, abdominis basis, & pectus. Elytra fusca, seu obscure testacea. Reliqua nigra") and the size ("Longit. a cap. ad an. elytri 2 lin. 1/2") ( SCHRANK 1781). In a later work, SCHRANK (1798) stated that species lived "unter Blätterpilzen", that the pronotum was "fast tellerförmig", and the size was only "2 1/4". Based on these data, the name does not refer to a species of Paederus , nor to any other genus of Paederinae , but apparently to a mycetophilous species of Tachyporinae . The species that seems to fit the description best is Lordithon lunulatus (LINNAEUS 1760) , with which S. austriacus is synonymised.