Ogdoecosta soricina ( Boheman, 1862 )

Sekerka, Lukáš, 2016, Taxonomic and nomenclatural changes in Cassidinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 56 (1), pp. 275-344 : 330

Ogdoecosta soricina ( Boheman, 1862)

Chelymorpha soricina Boheman, 1862: 205 (original description).

Chelymorpha stygia Boheman, 1862: 212 (original description), syn. nov.

Type localities. Chelymorpha soricina : original type locality ‘ Bolivia [sic!]’ corrected by SPAETH (1917) to ‘ Panama, Veragua’ ; C. stygia : ‘Columbia (Bogota)’.

Type material examined. Chelymorpha soricina : SYNTYPES: 1 spec., pinned, ‘14188 [w, p, s] || soricina | N. | Boliv. Warszew. [g, hw, cb, bf]’ ( ZMHB) ; 3 spec., pinned: no label but pinned in the same series ( ZMHB) .

Chelymorpha stygia : HOLOTYPE: ♀, pinned, ‘Type [w, p, s, c, rf] || Bogota [hw] | Baly Coll. | 1905—54. [w, p, cb] || Chelymorpha | stygia | Boh | Bogota [w, hw by Baly, cb] || Type Boh | 55 [hw by Baly on underside of preceding label]’ ( BMNH).

Remarks. BOHEMAN (1862) described Chelymorpha soricina from unknown number of specimens but he must have had at least two as he mentioned a length span. This taxon was based on material collected by J. Warszewicz in Panama but wrongly labelled as Bolivia ( SPAETH 1917). Several pages apart Boheman gave description of Chelymorpha stygia based on a single specimen from Bogota. He did not compared the latter taxon to any species, just mentioned that it is distinct. The specimen Boheman described is curious as it has a large callosity on the top of each elytron. However, these are artificial and probably resulted from improper emerging from the pupa as the callosties are asymmetric and the elytra are unnaturally distorted. In my opinion C. stygia is conspecific with C. soricina as both taxa differ only in colour besides the deformed elytra. Chelymorpha soricina has reddish-brown body except of the three black spots on disc of pronotum, which are basally connected in C. stygia that also has black disc of the elytra. However, the colouration itself is very variable in all species of Ogdoecosta Spaeth, 1909 and thus largely insignificant as distinguishing character. Since both taxa were described in the same publication I followed the Principle of the first reviser ( ICZN 1999: Article 24.2) and chose the name C. soricina as the valid one because it was previously correctly interpreted.

Distribution. Costa Rica ( SPAETH 1909a), Colombia ( BOHEMAN 1857) and Panama ( SPAETH 1917).