Type specimens and names assigned to Coprophanaeus (Megaphanaeus) d’Olsoufieff, 1924, the largest New World dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Phanaeini)
Author
Maldaner, Maria E.
Author
Cupello, Mario
Author
Ferreira, Daniela C.
Author
Vaz-De-Mello, Fernando Z.
text
Zootaxa
2017
4272
1
83
102
journal article
32970
10.11646/zootaxa.4272.1.4
cb7585af-33bc-4b5e-a748-cbba9d080a34
1175-5326
583381
EC7977C6-AA05-4727-8122-F53F8D66F6DD
Scarabaeus satelles
Lichtenstein, 1796
: 5
. Unavailable name.
Nomenclatural history:
The name
Scarabaeus satelles
was proposed in a catalogue of specimens to be sold at auctions titled
Catalogus musei zoologici ditissimi Hamburgi, d III
Februar 1796
(
Lichtenstein
1796
).
On
page 5,
Scarabaeus lancifer
appears as the forty-seventh species in
Lichtenstein’s
list and is followed by the description of a beetle named by him as ‘
Scar.
satelles
; nobis
’, from ‘
America
austr.
’ (
South America
), which
Lichtenstein
thought was a ‘mere variety’ of
S. lancifer
(‘
Vix mera varietas
Sc.
lanciferi’).
As
a literature reference to this name,
Lichtenstein
(1796)
cited figure 1 of plate 23 of
Voet’s
(1766) book (
Figure
2
A, left), one of the illustrations listed by
Linné
(1767)
in his description of
S. lancifer
; figure 2 of the same plate (
Figure
2
A. right), also mentioned by
Linnaeus
, was identified by
Lichtenstein
as
S. lancifer
.
In
his description of
S. satelles
, Lichtenstein
also referred to an illustration on plate XV of
Jablonsky
&
Herbst’s
(1789) book
Natursystem
aller bekannten in- und ausländischen
Insekten
2, which is an exact reproduction of
Voet’s
(1766) figure 1 3.
So
, at least in part, the
type
series of
S. satelles
was mixed with that of
S. lancifer
, hence both names could potentially be considered as objective synonyms. Indeed, they were eventually synonymized by
Harold (1870)
(not
Nevinson [1892]
, as stated by
Edmonds & Zídek [2010]
) and so remained in all revisions and catalogues published so far (e.g.,
Gillet 1911
;
d’Olsoufieff 1924
;
Blackwelder 1944
;
Edmonds & Zídek 2010
).
FIGURE 2.
Scarabaeus lancifer
figures mentioned by Linné (1767).
(A)
Voet’s (1766) figure 1 and 2 of plate XXIII.
(B)
Voet’s (1766) figure 38 of plate XXVII.
(C)
Marcgrave’s (1648) figure of ‘Taurus’.
Nonetheless
S. satelles
is not an available name, having been suppressed through Opinion 1820 of the ICZN (1995). Although
Lichtenstein (1796)
presented a brief description for
S. satelles
that satisfies the provisions of the Code, the ICZN (1995) used its plenary powers to suppress Lichtenstein’s (1796) catalogue (as well as its reprint from 1797) for nomenclatural purposes following a request by
Kerzhner (1994)
. Kerzhner’s main argument was that Lichtenstein’s work was overlooked by most of the nineteenth-century zoologists and, therefore, the eventual 2. See
Bousquet (2016)
for dates and authorship of this work, which is sometimes erroneously cited as being authored by Herbst only.
3. Germar (1821) also stated that Voet’s figure 1 represented ‘
Copris satelles
’, a species that, following Voet (1766), he believed to be from Africa (‘
Ƒoets Figure 1 dürfte eine von
C. ensifer
und
C. lancifer
gleichmässig verschiedene africanische Art vorstellen, welcher der Name
C. satelles
Lichtenst.
(vergl. Illig. Ausg. von Oliv.) bleiben kann
’).
discovery that some of the names proposed in that book were senior synonyms of names widely used as valid by modern authors would have caused unnecessary instability. By its decision, the ICZN (1995) decided to suppress the new names proposed by
Lichtenstein (1796)
with the exception of 23 names especially requested by
Kerzhner (1994)
;
Scarabaeus satelles
was not among those exceptions and therefore it must be considered as unavailable by having been published in a work suppressed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.