Novapus bifidus Carne, 1957, a primary homonym and synonym of Novapus bifidus Lea, 1910 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae)
Author
Allsopp, Peter G.
Author
Hudson, Peter J.
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-02-26
4560
3
576
578
journal article
27407
10.11646/zootaxa.4560.3.9
d0a3226b-1b79-48fa-97f4-9c81619c67f9
1175-5326
2627886
619FE9D9-245F-4BC8-B607-C8F86388962B
Novapus bifidus
Lea, 1910
(
Figs. 1–5
)
Novapus bifidus
Lea, 1910
: 217
, Figs 50–51 (cephalic horns), Fig. 53 (prothoracic excavation, male).
Lectotype
here designated
, male in SAM labelled (
Fig. 2
) a) “
bifidus
/ Lea TYPE
♂
/ Cape
York
” [handwritten], b) “Para-type” [typeset, circular, yellow edged], c) “
Paratype
♂
/
Novapus
/
bifidus
mihi /
P.B. Carne
det. 1952” [handwritten and typeset], d) “
Novapus
/
bifidus
Lea
/ Cotype
♂
” [handwritten], e) “
LECTOTYPE
♂
/
Novapus bifidus
Lea
/ des.
P. Allsopp
& /
P. Hudson
2019” [typeset].
Novapus bifidus
Carne, 1957
: 71
, Fig. 159 (mentum), Fig. 170 (anterior head, female), Fig. 176 (parameres, male),
Map
7 (distribution).
Holotype
male in ANIC labelled (
Fig. 6
) a) “Type” [typeset, circular, red edged], b) “CY” [Cape
York
] [handwritten], c) “
E.W. Ferguson
/ Collection” [typeset], d) “
Novapus
/
bifidus
Lea
/ Id. by
A.M. Lea
” [handwritten and typeset], e) “
Holotype
♂
/
Novapus
/
bifidus
mihi /
P.B. Carne
det. 1952” [handwritten and typeset], f) “ANIC Database No. / 25 064235” [typeset], g) “ANIC / Image” [typeset on yellow].
New synonymy
.
Novapus bifidus
Lea: Lea 1919
: 237
;
Daniels 2004
: 694
;
Krajcik 2005
: 49
;
Krajcik 2012
: 169
;
Schoolmeesters 2018
.
Novapus bifidus
Carne
: Endrỏdi 1974: 49, 50, 51, Fig. 95 (parameres, male); Endrỏdi 1985: 408, 409, fig. 1452 (parameres, male);
Carne & Allsopp 1987
: 310
;
Cassis & Weir 1992
: 406
;
Dechambre 2005
: 31
, unnumbered figures (dorsum and lateral, female);
Krajcik 2012
: 169
; Atlas of
Living
Australia
2018
.
FIGURES 1–3.
Novapus bifidus
Lea
: 1, lectotype male (on left) and paralectotype female (on right) in SAM, dorsal view; 2, lectotype male, labels; 3, paralectotype female, label (collage of photographs by Peter Hudson, © South Australian Museum).
FIGURES 4–6.
Novapus bifidus
Carne
: 4, holotype male in ANIC, dorsal view; 5, holotype male in ANIC, lateral; 6, holotype male, labels (collage of photographs by Cate Lemann, © Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).
Status of types.
Lea (1910)
saw at least one male adult, at least one female adult and a pupa but did not say how many of each gender of the adults he had. However, given that he gave no variation in the length of the adults of each gender, there was possibly only one of each. He stated the type locality as “Cape
York
”. There are two specimens in SAM marked as types (
Fig. 1
): a male, clearly marked as from Cape
York
and with Lea’s handwritten “Type
♂
” label and designated a
paratype
of
N. bifidus
Carne
(
Fig. 2
); a female, labelled only as “
Queensland
” with Lea’s register number of 14268 and “TYPE” in red (
Fig. 3
). These are undoubtedly
syntypes
of Lea’s taxon and are the two
paratypes
of
N. bifidus
Carne
in SAM (one with the registration number 14268) noted by
Cassis & Weir (1992)
. We have not located the second male in SAM seen by
Carne (1957)
or the pupa seen by
Lea (1910)
. We hereby designate the male in SAM as the
lectotype
of
N. bifidus
Lea
in order to preserve the stability of nomenclature. The female in SAM we consider a
paralectotype
of
N. bifidus
Lea. We
have labelled both appropriately. Both are also
paratypes
of
N. bifidus
Carne
; the
holotype
of that taxon, also seen by Lea, and its labels are shown in
Figs. 4–6
.
The date of publication of Lea’s paper has been variously given as 1910 or 1911. The title page of the journal suggests
March 1911
, but Volume 23 was issued in two parts—Part 1, containing Lea’s paper, in
August 1910
(p. 256), and Part
2 in
March 1911
(p. 616).
Distribution.
Both taxa were described from Cape York [
10.69°S
,
142.53°E
] and nearby Thursday Island [
10.58°S
,
142.22°E
], most apparently collected by Hermann Elgner (
Carne (1957)
and
Carne & Allsopp (1987)
give the collector as “Elgin”). It has also been collected further south at Station Creek near Mount Carbine [
16.60°S
,
145.18°E
] and Southedge near Mareeba [
16.76°S
,
145.28°E
] (
Carne & Allsopp 1987
) and at 40 Mile Scrub [
18.10°S
,
144.85°E
] (Queensland Museum), all also within the dry tropics of northeastern Queensland.
Natural history.
Lea (1910)
noted that Elgner had collected adults and pupae and seen numerous larvae in the nests of termites and the broken adults collected at 40 Mile Scrub came from a termite mound. Other
Novapus
spp. are also known from similar habitats (
Carne 1957
;
Carne & Allsopp 1987
; P.M. Hutchinson, personal communication 2018).