Melobasina fossicollis ( Kerremans, 1906 )

Bílý, Svatopluk, Kubáň, Vítězslav & Volkovitsh, Mark G., 2009, A study on the tribe Poecilonotini, with a revision of the subtribe Nesotrinchina subtrib. nov. and the description of a new genus and species from Papua New Guinea (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Chrysochroinae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 49 (2), pp. 729-767 : 752-753

Melobasina fossicollis ( Kerremans, 1906)

Exagistus fossicollis Kerremans, 1906: 415 . Type locality: Solomon Islands: Shortland Island [Not Bismark Archipelago!]

Melobasina fossicollis: OBENBERGER (1923) : 17 (note; new combination); OBENBERGER (1930): 420 (catalogue; distribution: ‘Archipel Bismarck’ – mistake); HOŁYŃSKI (1993): 27 (note); BELLAMY (2008): 625 (catalogue; distribution: Australasian: Papua New Guinea, Bismark Archipelago – mistake).

Remarks. KERREMANS (1906) mentioned ‘2 exemplaires, des îles Shortland’ (length 13 mm, width 4 mm); OBENBERGER (1923) transferred this species to the genus Melobasina , evidently based on the study of one of both syntypes and on illustration of M. apicalis in KERREMANS (1903). In the corresponding volume of Obenberger’s catalogue ( Obenberger 1930: 420) from the library of Obenberger (deposited in NMPC), we can find his handwritten note that this species is represented in his collection (deposited in NMPC) but we failed to find any corresponding specimen in the collection. It is evident from the description that the type specimens came from the collection of H. E. R. von Bennigsen. A part of Bennigsen’s collection (including material from New Guinea and Bismark Archipelago) was deposited in DEIC ( HORN et al. 1990) and the rest was left in the collection of Bennigsen in Waitze an der Warthe (now Wiejce, by Warta river, Wojewódstwo Lubuskie, western Poland) but this species is not mentioned in the list of types deposited in DEIC ( GAEDIKE 1985) and we failed to find any data about the fate of the rest of Bennigsen’s collection (e.g. in GAEDIKE 1995). According to BELLAMY (2008), the type is deposited in MNHN but we did not find this type in MNHN or BMNH. It is also not mentioned in the list of types housed in IRSN. Given the original description and the type locality, we accept the transfer proposed by OBENBERGER (1923). We are also inclined to believe that M. fossicollis and M. apicalis are conspecific.

Distribution. Solomon Islands (Shortland Island).