Both non-type species of Molytophilus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Molytinae) are transferred to Oreoscotus
Author
Grebennikov, Vasily V.
text
Zootaxa
2018
4418
4
393
396
journal article
30110
10.11646/zootaxa.4418.4.6
5fa5efe4-3aa1-4b14-a794-e3faed206a48
1175-5326
1244950
4785EFA2-8E39-4E70-AA2C-6C2776E740C9
Oreoscotus
Aurivillius, 1910
Oreoscotus
Aurivillius, 1910
: 421
(species included:
serratus
,
minor
,
laevis
). Type species: not yet designated.
Remarks.
Judging by the results of the morphological comparison of the
type
specimens, both of Hustache’s taxa are not congeneric with
M. carinatus
and have to, therefore, be transferred to another genus. Choosing such a genus requires a phylogenetic hypothesis of African
Molytinae
, and such a hypothesis is currently absent. To the best of available knowledge, both Hustache’s species likely belong to a possible clade distinguished by the adult prosternal canal delimited laterally by carinae and uniting Afrotropical species currently assigned to the genera
Niphades
Pascoe, 1871
,
Oreoscotus
Aurivillius, 1910
and
Niphadonothus
Voss, 1965
. This agrees with an earlier thought captured on one of the labels of the
O. puncticollis
holotype
, where the specimen is related to
Niphades
(written perhaps by Guy A.K. Marshall,
Figs 2C, D
). These three genera, however, have themselves never been assessed from a phylogenetic viewpoint and their taxonomic validity is based on the pre-Henniginan typological concept.
Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal (1999)
placed
Oreoscotus
as
Molytinae
incertae sedis
, while
Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal (2002)
transferred it to
Aminyopini
.
Lyal (2014)
included
Niphades
and other
Aminyopini
in the tribe Euderini; in this paper characters for the redefined Euderini were provided but not, however, cladistically analysed. Moreover, preliminary data suggest that the genus
Niphades
is widely distributed in the Afrotropical, Palaearctic and Oriental regions, has its
type
species in
Sarawak
and is not monophyletic. Considering all this uncertainty and pending further studies, both of Hustache’s nominal species originally described as
Molytophilus
(
affinis
and
puncticollis
), are herein transferred to the so far exclusively Tanzanian genus
Oreoscotus
to become
O. affinis
(
Hustache, 1936
)
comb. n.
and
O. puncticollis
(
Hustache, 1936
)
comb. n.