Penthesilea

Evenhuis, Neal L. & Pape, Thomas, 2017, Battling the un-dead: the status of the Diptera genus-group names originally proposed in Johann Wilhelm Meigen’s 1800 pamphlet, Zootaxa 4275 (1), pp. 1-74 : 45-46

42. Penthesilea

[ Penthesilea ] Meigen, 1800: 35.

CURRENT STATUS: Suppressed by action of I.C.Z.N. (1963: 339 [Opinion 678]); treated under Blera Billberg, 1820 [teste Sabrosky (1999: 237)].

[ Penthesilea ] Bezzi, 1907a: 56.

CURRENT STATUS: Unavailable name; criteria to make the name available not fulfilled in this work. REMARKS: Bezzi (1907a) included this name only in a list of Meigen 1800 names without stating their availability.

Penthesilea Meigen in Hendel, 1908: 63 .

ORIGINALLY INCLUDED SPECIES: Musca ruficauda De Geer, 1776 [as “ Criorhina ruficauda ”] (Bezzi in Hendel 1908: 67).

TYPE SPECIES: Musca ruficauda De Geer, 1776 [as “ Criorhina ruficauda ”] [= Musca fallax Linnaeus, 1758 ], by monotypy (Bezzi in Hendel 1908: 67).

CURRENT STATUS: Preoccupied by Penthesilea Ragonot, 1891 ; junior synonym of Blera Billberg, 1820 . New Synonymy.

FAMILY: SYRPHIDAE .

REMARKS: Penthesilea was originally proposed by Meigen (1800: 35) without included species and later made unavailable by the suppression of the entire work for the purposes of zoological nomenclature by action of the I.C.Z.N. (1963: 339 [Opinion 678]). Hendel (1908: 63) was the first after Meigen (1800) to give characters to differentiate the taxon (reproducing Meigen’s characters) and to treat Penthesilea as valid, which makes the name available from that work with Meigen as author. Hendel (1908) did not include species in the main portion of his work, but in a footnote on page 67, he mentioned that Bezzi (in litt.) considered that Musca ruficauda De Geer, 1776 [as “ Criorhina ruficauda ”] can be an included species. This is thus the type species by monotypy. Musca ruficauda De Geer, 1776 is currently treated in Blera Billberg, 1820 [teste Sabrosky (1999: 237], which makes Penthesilea Meigen in Hendel, 1908 a junior synonym of Blera Billberg, 1820 , n. syn. Coquillett (1910a: 586), unaware of the inclusion of a species in the footnote, designated Syrphus asilicus Fallén, 1816 . This invalid designation was thought by many workers to have been the first inclusion of a species and put Penthesilea in synonymy with Criorhina Meigen, 1803 . Sabrosky (1999: 237) noted Bezzi’s first included species and was the first to treat Penthesilea under Blera Billberg, 1820 .