Trichodesma gorhami Pic 1901: 93

Schnepp, Kyle E., 2023, An illustrated type catalog of Trichodesma LeConte, 1861 (Coleoptera: Ptinidae) from Mexico, with description of a new species, Insecta Mundi 2023 (24), pp. 1-19 : 4

Trichodesma gorhami Pic 1901: 93

Figures 15–18

There is ambiguity regarding the names and relationships between this and Trichodesma imperator (Laporte de Castelnau) . Pic (1901) provides a new name for T. imperator without any explanation why a name is needed. He indicates the author as Gorham even though Gorham (1883) attributes authorship to Laporte de Castelnau (1838) and Gorham simply provides a figure for the species. If Pic believed that Gorham was describing it and created a homonym, then his new name would be justified. It seems, however, that Pic simply renamed the species, as Champion (1913) states; “Pic renamed the insect from this figure, but he did not describe it in any way”. If we believe that both Pic and Champion thought that the figure for T. imperator from Gorham (1883) did not match the description from Laporte de Castelnau (1838), then it is possible that Pic’s 1901 name is simply a new name and not a replacement name.

The specimen Gorham’s figure is based on is from Almolonga, Mexico, and is from Höge’s collection. This specimen, which would be the holotype, should be in the NHMUK as Champion (1913) states “The above description is taken from the two examples in the “Biologia” collection, one of these having been figured by Gorham as T. imperator .” There is a specimen in the MNHM labeled as the type of both T. imperator Gorham and T. gorhami Pic. While this specimen is from Almolonga and the “Hoege” collection, it does not match Gorham’s figure nor Champion’s description and may be mislabeled. This specimen, figured here, is the putative type from the MNHM and has the following labels “Almolonga, / Mexico. / Hoege. // [handwritten] type // [handwritten] gorhami / Pic // Museum Paris / Coll. M. Pic // [on red] SYNTYPE // SYNTYPE / Trichodesma / imperator Gorham, 1883 // SYNTYPE / Trichodesma / gorhami Pic, 1901 // MNHN, Paris / EC19799 / [QR code]”. Additional research into the identity of the specimen figured in Gorham (1883) is ongoing.

Figures

Figures 15–18. Trichodesma gorhami Pic, possible type. 15) Dorsal habitus. 16) Lateral habitus. 17) Frontal habitus.18) Specimen labels.