Review of the genus-level names proposed by Johannes Gistel in Chrysomelidae (Coleoptera)
Author
Bezděk, Jan
text
Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae
2020
2020-03-12
60
1
173
188
journal article
10.37520/aemnp.2020.011
1804-6487
3879369
BB69AEEF-303D-4668-9DB9-FF8A05D79DCD
Comisteisa
Gistel, 1848
Comisteisa
Gistel, 1848a: 403
;
GISTEL (1848b)
: xi, 123;
GISTEL (1851)
: xi, 123.
Type
species.
Comisteisa
xanthoptera
Gistel, 1848 by monotypy.
Current status.
Junior objective synonym of
Elytrosphaera
Blanchard, 1845
(see Comments).
Comments.
MONRÓS & BECHYNÉ (1956)
mismatched some of Gistel’s publications. They used the reference ‘Gistl, 1837: 403’ for
Comisteisa
, which in fact refers to
GISTEL (1848a)
. Using this wrong dating they gave the priority to
Comisteisa
over
Elytrosphaera
and synonymized them. Bechyné used
Comisteisa
as a valid genus name in his subsequent papers (
BECHYNÉ 1957
,
BECHYNÉ & SPRINGLOVA DE BECHYNÉ 1965
). On the contrary,
SEENO & WILCOX (1982)
and
DACCORDI (1994)
listed
Comisteisa
as a synonym of
Elytrosphaera
Chevrolat, 1843. However, neither application is correct.
GISTEL (1848a)
attributed
Comisteisa
xanthoptera
to Perty but I was not able to find Pertyʼs description; therefore, the taxon has Gistel’s authorship as it is not clearly stated that Perty provided the description. However,
Comisteisa
xanthoptera
was mentioned in three publications which were published earlier but always as a nomen nudum:
PERTY (1830: 18)
as ‘
Chrysomela
xanthoptera
Pty.’;
GISTEL (1834)
as ‘
Doryphora xanthoptera
Pty.’; and
GISTEL (1846: 134)
as ‘Nov. Gen. (
Chrys. xanthoptera
Perty)’.
Also, the situation with
Elytrosphaera
is complicated as the authorship and
type
species have been unclear during the entire history of the genus. Most authors attributed
Elytrosphaera
to Chevrolat in
DEJEAN (1836)
(e.g.
CHAPUIS 1874
,
DACCORDI 2008
), to Chevrolat in
D’ORBIGNY (1843: 655)
(e.g.
WEISE 1916
,
BLACKWELDER 1946
,
BECHYNÉ 1952
,
SEENO & WILCOX 1982
, DACCOR- DI 1994), or to Chevrolat without specification (e.g.
BLANCHARD 1845
,
STÅL 1858
,
MOTSCHULSKY 1860: 250
,
BECHYNÉ 1950
,
MONRÓS & BECHYNÉ 1956
). On the other hand,
STÅL (1860
,
1863
) and
JACOBY (1883
,
1891
) cre- dited
Elytrosphaera
to
STÅL (1858)
, and, finally,
BALY (1858
,
1859
) and
BOUCHARD et al. (2011)
attributed it to
BLANCHARD (1845)
.
Elytrosphaera
was mentioned for the first time in DEJEAN’ s (1836) catalogue with Chevrolat’s authorship and accompanied by three nomina nuda: ‘
flavipennis
Dej. (=
auripennis
Chevrolat, =
inflata
Mannerheim)’, ‘
sanguinipennis
Buquet’, and ‘
testudinaria
Dej.’. Thus,
Elytrosphaera
in
DEJEAN (1836)
is also a nomen nudum (see
BOUSQUET & BOUCHARD 2013
). Chevrolat in
D’ORBIGNY (1843: 655)
listed
Elytrosphaera
without any description within the entry on ‘Chrysomélines’ and accompanied it by the name ‘
auripennis
Chevrolat’, which is a nomen nudum. Chevrolat also provided a simple identification key to the genera of Chrysomélines but the entry with
Elytrosphaera
is ambiguous as it contains also other genus and therefore it cannot be considered a valid description. Chevrolat in
D’ORBIGNY (1844: 283)
again listed
Elytrosphaera
under the letter E but also without description and accompanied by the same nomina nuda which appeared in
DEJEAN (1836)
. To sum up,
Elytrosphaera
in
DEJEAN (1836)
and
D’ORBIGNY (1843
,
1844
) is a nomen nudum.
The first description of
Elytrosphaera
was published by
BLANCHARD (1845)
but without any species included; however, the name is available according to Article 67.2.2 (
ICZN 1999
). The nominal species that were first subsequently included and thus are deemed to be the only originally included nominal species are those described by
STÅL (1858)
:
Elytrosphaera xanthopyga
Stål, 1858
,
E. breviuscula
Stål, 1858
,
E. noverca
Stål, 1858
,
E. fulminigera
Stål, 1858
,
E. testudinaria
Stål, 1858
,
E. hospes
Stål, 1858
, and
E. flavolatera
Stål, 1858
.
BLANCHARD (1845)
used the spelling
Elytrosphoera
; however, since then it has been used only by
CHAPUIS (1874)
and
BOUCHARD et al. (2011)
. An incorrect subsequent spelling
Elytrosphaera
is in prevailing usage as it has been used by all other authors, thus it is deemed to be the correct original spelling based on Article 33.3.1 (
ICZN 1999
).
MOTSCHULSKY (1860: 188)
introduced this genus as ‘
Elythrosphaera
Motsch.’, which I consider an incorrect subsequent spelling not in prevailing usage. Motschulsky’s authorship is an evident mistake because in the index on p. 250 he attributed it to Chevrolat.
Chevrolat in
D’ORBIGNY (1843: 655)
clearly mentioned ‘
auripennis
Chevrolat’ as the
type
species of
Elytrosphaera
; however, it is a nomen nudum and therefore the designation is invalid. Similarly, MOTSCHULSKY’ s (1860: 250) designation of ‘
Elytrosphaera flavipennis
Dej.’ is also invalid.
Elytrosphaera flavipennis
was formally described by
BALY (1859)
but it is not among the species originally included in
Elytrosphaera
by
STÅL (1858)
. The
type
species of
Elytrosphaera
is
E. xanthopyga
Stål, 1858
designated by ACHARD (1923).
Elytrosphaera
Blanchard, 1845
has priority over
Comisteisa
Gistel, 1848
. Because the
type
species of
Elytrosphaera
and
Comisteisa
(
E. xanthopyga
Stål, 1858
and
C. xanthoptera
Gistel, 1848) were synonymized by
MONRÓS & BECHYNÉ (1956)
,
Comisteisa
is here confirmed as a junior objective synonym of
Elytrosphaera
.