Anacassis dubia ( Boheman, 1854 )

Sekerka, Lukáš, 2016, Taxonomic and nomenclatural changes in Cassidinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 56 (1), pp. 275-344 : 316-317

Anacassis dubia ( Boheman, 1854)

Physonota dubia Boheman, 1854: 235 (original description).

Physonota atomaria Boheman, 1854: 209 (original description), syn. nov.

Physonota seriata Boheman, 1857: 61 (original description), syn. confirm.

Type localities. Physonota atomaria : ‘Brasilia’; P. dubia : ‘Brasilia’; P. seriata : ‘Brasilia’.

Type material examined. Physonota atomaria : HOLOTYPE: ♂, pinned, ‘14286 [w, p, s] || atomaria | Boh.* | Brasil. [g, hw, cb] || HOLOTYPE | des. L. Borowiec [red, p, cb] || HOLOTYPUS | Physonota | atomaria | Boheman, 1854 | des. L. Borowiec [red, p, cb, bf]’ ( ZMHB).

Physonota dubia : LECTOTYPE (designated by BOROWIEC 1999a): ♀, pinned, ‘14285 [w, p, s] || dubia | Boh.* | Bras. Sello. [g, hw, cb] || LECTOTYPE | des. L. Borowiec [red, p, cb] || LECTOTYPUS | Physonota | dubia | Boheman, 1854 | des. L. Borowiec [red, p, cb, bf]’ ( ZMHB).

Physonota seriata : SYNTYPE: ♀, pinned, ‘Type [w, p, s, c, rf] || Brazil. [hw] | ex Deyrolle [hw] | Baly Coll. | 1905—54. [w, p, cb] || Mesomphalia | seriata | Boh | Brazil [w, hw by Baly, cb] || Type | Boh: | Col: Deyrolle [hw by Baly on underside of preceding label]’ ( BMNH).

Remarks. BOHEMAN (1854) described Physonota atomaria based on communication with the Berlin Museum (ZMHB) and placed it among species with oval body and convex elytra. SPAETH (1913) transferred it to a newly proposed genus Anacassis Spaeth, 1913 and later on SPAETH (1923) to Eutheria Spaeth, 1909 . Both transfers were probably made based on primary description only as Spaeth did not give any further comments. I have studied the single specimen in ZMHB considered as holotype by monotypy and in my opinion it is conspecific with Anacassis dubia ( Boheman, 1854) as all characters are the same except of the shape of body. On this occasion I have also studied the type of P. seriata synonymized by SPAETH (1913) with A. dubia . The two latter taxa were described from females, which have a more or less subtriangular body while P. atomaria was based on a male specimen with an oval body. Since P. atomaria and P. dubia were described in the same publication I followed the Principle of the first reviser ( ICZN 1999: Article 24.2) and chose the name P. dubia as valid because it is widely known and was previously correctly applied.

Anacassis dubia is easily recognized from other species of Anacassis by the irregularly convex elytra with distinct postscutellar hump, pronotum with black medial stripe and elytra with numerous black specks.

Distribution. Argentina: Misiones ( BOROWIEC 2009c); Brazil: Paraná ( BUZZI 1996b), Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo ( BOROWIEC 1996), Rio de Janeiro ( FLINTE et al. 2009), Santa Catarina ( BUZZI 1996b, BOROWIEC 2002).