On the Staphylinidae of the Greek island Corfu (Insecta: Coleoptera)
Author
Assing, Volker
Author
Schülke, Michael
Author
Brachat, Volker
Author
Meybohm, Heinrich
text
Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology
2018
Beitr. Entomol.
2018-08-01
68
1
31
67
http://zoobank.org/f1e9d416-0015-4c82-8ce1-291e5e84844d
journal article
2396
10.21248/contrib.entomol.68.1.031-067
600bdd73-29b9-45cb-86ba-2fe28c4d444a
0005-805X
4755016
F1E9D416-0015-4C82-8CE1-291E5E84844D
Bledius corniger
ROSENHAUER, 1856
Bledius bubalus
GISTEL, 1857: 18
;
syn. nov.
The original description of
B. bubalus
, which is based on an unspecified number of
syntypes
from “Corfu” (
GISTEL 1857
), is nearly devoid of information.
GISTEL (1857)
merely states that the head has three horns (“Kopf mit drei Hörnern, von denen das mittlere das längste”) and that the species is otherwise similar to his interpretation of
B. crassicollis
LACORDAIRE, 1835
.
Previous attempts at finding
type
material in the Gistel collection, which is supposedly deposited in the Zoologische Staatssammlung München, have not been successful (e.g.,
ASSING 2008c
).
Bledius bubalus
has never been recorded since the original description and is currently listed only for Corfu (
HERMAN 2001
,
SCHÜLKE & SMETANA 2015
). However,
Bledius
species
are generally more or less widespread, so that the possibility that there is an endemic species in Corfu can be ruled out. There is no West Palaearctic
Bledius
species
with three horns on the head, so Gistel evidently misinterpreted the anterior process of the pronotum as originating from the head. Four species with two horn-like processes on the head and a long horn-shaped process of the pronotum are known from Corfu:
B. spectabilis
,
B. frisius
,
B. furcatus
, and
B. corniger
. Only
B. corniger
is of similar size as
B. crassicollis
, whereas the other three species are distinctly larger. Therefore,
B. bubalus
is synonymized with
B. corniger
.