Barisoma Motschulsky, 1863

Prena, Jens, Hsiao, Yun & Oberprieler, Rolf G., 2023, New combinations and synonymies in the weevil genus Lyterius Schönherr (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), with a conspectus of historical works on Daldorff’s Sumatran beetles, Zootaxa 5380 (1), pp. 26-36 : 30

Barisoma Motschulsky, 1863

The genus name was made available in a combined description as“ Barisoma pandanicola Nietn.Motsch. ( Centrinus ?)” ( Motschulsky 1863). It is a senior homonym of Barisoma Faust, 1888 . Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal (1999) suppressed the alternative original spelling Barysoma Faust (which would have had date priority over Barysoma Cox, 1965 ) and replaced the accepted original spelling Barisoma Faust with the new name Hollisiella Alonzo-Zarazaga & Lyal, 1999 . Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal (1999) recorded Barisoma Motschulsky as occurring in China and Sri Lanka, but the China record probably is a confusion with Barisoma Faust , although one species of Barisoma Motschulsky indeed occurs in Hainan, presently the northern-most record of the genus (Prena, unpublished data; Fig. 9 ).

Johannes Werner Theodor Nietner (1828–1874), a Prussian gardener who emigrated to Sri Lanka at age 23, collected the type series of Barisoma pandanicola from Pandanus leaves in the vicinity of his coffee plantation in the Pudul-Aya (Pundal Oya) River valley. Nietner (1859) wrote that he had sent his small beetles to Motschulsky and the rest to other European entomologists and museums. This date coincides with an acquisition recorded in the CGMZB. The only specimens of B. pandanicola known to us are housed in ZMMU. Photographs of them ( Fig. 5 ) provided by V. Savitsky show that B. pandanicola is a species of Lyterius . The western occurrence of the genus and its association with Pandanus ( Pandanaceae ) are supported by another unidentified species occurring in the Western Ghats moist deciduous forests of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India (specimens in CMNC, NHMUK, USNM).

Figures

FIGURE 9. Map of South and Southeast Asia with presently known collecting sites of Lyterius species and type localities of L. abdominalis (1), L. pandanicola (2) and L. impar (3).

FIGURES 1–5. Type species/specimens of Lyterius Schönherr, Plaxes Pascoe and Barisoma Motschulsky. 1, 2, paralectotype male and lectotype female of Rhynchaenus musculus Fabricius (ZMUK, Lund-Sehested Collection), type species of Lyterius; 3, 4, lectotype male and paralectotype female of Plaxes impar Pascoe (MSNG); 5, syntypes male and female of Barisoma pandanicola Motschulsky (ZMMU). Photographs 1–4 by Anne Mack (ZMUK), 5 by Vladimir Savitsky (ZMMU).