Ptilocheta tacchetti Rondani, 1865

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 187

Ptilocheta tacchetti Rondani, 1865

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1865c: 227.

TYPE LOCALITY: “ Bononiae inventus [found in Bologna ( Italy)]” .

TYPE MATERIAL: 2 ♂♂, syntypes (one glued to a cardboard stage, head covered with mold, missing fore- and left mid-legs) ( MZUF: Box 17): Ptilocheta Rndn. / tacchetti Rnd. , ♂ / 891.

CURRENT STATUS: nomen dubium in Stevenia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 (Herting 1993: 114, Peris & González-Mora 2007: 53); junior synonym of Stevenia obscuripennis (Loew, 1847) Cerretti et al. 2020: 100 ).

REMARKS: Rondani (1865c: 227) described Ptilocheta tacchetti from just the male sex, without specifying either the number or the length of the specimens, from material received from C. Tacchetti. We found two syntypes in this study. A MZUF female numbered “891” is not included in the type series because of its sex. Pape (1989) did not list this nominal species in his revision of Rondani’s Rhinophoridae . Cerretti et al. (2020: 100) cited a holotype of this nominal species in the MZUF, but this is incorrect because in his original description, Rondani did not explicitly refer to a single male specimen. The following subsequent spellings have been used: “ tacchettii ” ( Bezzi & Stein 1907: 456), “ tachettii ” (Herting 1993: 114), “ tachetti” ( Peris & González-Mora 2007: 53). None of these is in prevailing usage ( O’Hara et al. 2011: 214). Therefore, the original spelling “ tacchetti ” is to be used and “ tacchettii ”, “ tachettii ” and “ tachetti” are incorrect subsequent spellings. O’Hara et al. (2011: 155) considered Ptilocheta as an “unnecessary new replacement name for Ptilocera Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 ”.