Dipropus soleatus (Say)

Mathison, Blaine A. & Johnson, Paul J., 2017, A new species of Dipropus Germar (Coleoptera: Elateridae) from Florida, with taxonomic and morphological notes and a new key to the species of the eastern United States, Insecta Mundi 2017 (566), pp. 1-7 : 4

Dipropus soleatus (Say)

Elater soleatus Say, 1834:79 [see Johnson (2016) for bibliography]

Ischiodontus oblitus Candèze, 1859:101

Anchastus fuscus LeConte, 1878:404 new synonym

This species was originally described from Indiana and is currently known from throughout much of the eastern United States. There are no type specimens for this species in the MCZ where the remaining Say types were deposited ( Johnson 2016) and the type is believed to have been destroyed. Johnson (2017) examined the type of Ischiodontus oblitus housed in the BMNH, which had been labeled as I. soleatus by Becker in 1975, and designated it as the lectotype of I. soleatus (for a complete history of this specimen, see Johnson 2016). Clark (1963) previously considered I. oblitus a synonym of D. simplex (LeConte, 1853) . The aedeagus of Johnson’s lectotype is not consistent with the written description of the D. soleatus genitalia as described by Clark (1963). It appears that Clark based his descriptions on previously identified material and was possibly examining a specimen of D. simplex when he described the aedeagus of D. soleatus . Clark also used the texture of the elytra to separate D. fuscus and D. soleatus , but these characters are highly variable and unreliable to diagnose species of Dipropus . The aedeagus of the I. oblitus type is identical to that of LeConte’s type of A. fuscus and we hereby propose A. fuscus as a new synonym of D. soleatus . Examination and dissection of many specimens throughout the study region show a strong correlation between the I. oblitus-D. fuscus aedeagus type and the shape of the pronotum. Other characters, such as body size and size of membranous tarsal pads, appear variable with no apparent correlation with one or the other.