Mylabris Fabricius, 1775

Pan, Zhao & Bologna, Marco A., 2014, Taxonomy, Bionomics and Faunistics of the Nominate Subgenus of Mylabris Fabricius, 1775, with the description of five new species (Coleoptera: Meloidae: Mylabrini), Zootaxa 3806 (1), pp. 1-78 : 9

Genus Mylabris Fabricius, 1775

Type species. The definition of the type species of this genus, and consequently of the nominate subgenus, is still being debated. According to Selander (1991) and other authors, the type species of the genus is Meloe cichorii Linnaeus, 1758 , by subsequent designation ( Latreille, 1810: 430). However, in the present paper we agree with the considerations published by Bologna & Pinto (2002: 2066) (see also Bologna, 2008). The fact that Meloe cichorii is the type species of Mylabris is problematic. Kuzin (1954) ignored the Latreille’s designation and transferred cichorii to Hycleus [as Mylabris (Euzonabris) , a synonym of Hycleus ]; its placement has been adopted by other workers (e.g. Bologna, 1991a: 207). Following Kuzin’s definition of cichorii , will result in extensive nomenclatural disruption in these two most speciose genera of Mylabrini. However, a recent examination of the type series of Meloe cichorii ( UUZM and the beetle collection of the Linnean Society of London) shows that M. cichorii is mixed and includes not only Hycleus cichorii as defined by recent authors, but also Mylabris variabilis (Pallas) and other mylabrine species belonging to different genera. Consequently there are two options for preserving current generic definitions: (a) Designation of the representative of M. variabilis as lectotype of Mylabris cichorii ; or (b) petition the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature to set aside the designation of Meloe cichorii as type species and accept the designation of Meloe quadripunctata Linné. The latter was inappropriately designated the type species by Pardo Alcaide (1954a), but is in accordance with the modern definition of Mylabris ( Kuzin, 1954; Bologna, 1991a).