Chelymorpha advena Boheman, 1857

Sekerka, Lukáš, 2016, Taxonomic and nomenclatural changes in Cassidinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 56 (1), pp. 275-344 : 320-321

Chelymorpha advena Boheman, 1857

Chelymorpha advena Boheman, 1857: 80 (original description).

Chelymorpha vittifera Spaeth, 1932: 196 (original description), syn. nov.

Type localities. Chelymorpha advena : ‘Buenos Ayres’; C. vittifera : Argentina, Santa Fe, Rio San Javier, Estancia le Noria .

Type material examined. Chelymorpha advena : SYNTYPE: ♀, pinned, ‘E. Coll | Chevt. [w, p, cb] || Lesrou | Buen aires [g, hw, s, circle label] || 127 [w, p, s] || 292 [y, p, s] || Chelymorpha | nov. Spec. | teste Bhn. [w, hw by Clark, s] || Chelymorpha | bicolorata | Bhn B ayres [w, hw by Chevrolat, s] || 67·56 [w, p, s] || Chelymorpha | advena Bhn | from descript. CJG. | possibly the type [w, hw by Gahan, cb]’ ( BMNH).

Chelymorpha vittifera : HOLOTYPE: pinned, ‘ Estancia la Noria , | Rio San Javier, | Santa Fe, Argentine. | G. E. Bryant. | 2. I. 1912 [hw] [w, p, cb] || G.Bryant Coll. | 1919–147 [w, p, cb] || Chelymorpha | vittifera [hw] | Spaeth det. | m. Holotyp. [hw] [w, p and hw by Spaeth, cb]’ ( BMNH).

Additional material examined. ARGENTINA: ENTRE RÍOS: Santa Elena , 21.i.1912, 1 spec., G. E. Bryant lgt. ( BMNH) . SANTA FE: Estancia la Noria, Río San Javier , 21.xii.1911, 1 spec., 2.i.1912, 3 spec., G. E. Bryant lgt. (2 BMNH, 1 LSPC) ; Villa Ana , xii.1925, 1 spec., K. J. Hayward lgt. ( BMNH) .

Remarks. BOHEMAN (1857) described Chelymorpha advena from the collection of L. Chevrolat. Specimens of Cassidinae described by Boheman from the collection of Chevrolat were mostly, if not all, purchased by Hamlet Clark, whose collection is nowadays housed in BMNH. There is a single specimen with label as ‘ bicolorata Bhn’ handwritten by Chevrolat. Such name was never published in Chelymorpha Chevrolat, 1836 , however, the specimen perfectly matches the original description of C. advena . It was not uncommon for Boheman to use a manuscript name and later decide to change it in the description. I agree with C. J. Gahan, the former keeper of the entomology collections at the BMNH, who added the label saying that the specimen matches C. advena according to the description and considered it a syntype. Most likely the species was based on unique specimen as Boheman gave a single length measurement and later did not mark this taxon as present in his collection ( BOHEMAN 1862). While nearly in all species he described from more than one specimen, he kept duplicates in his collection.

SPAETH (1932) based description of Chelymorpha vittifera on unique colour pattern formed by black pronotum, ochraceous elytra with black sutural stripe and another black stripe running along middle of each elytron. The original description was based on a single specimen, however, I have found additional six specimens, four of them from the type locality. They all differ in mostly ochraceous dorsum, two specimens have two small black spots on pronotum, in others the pronotum is uniformly yellow. One specimen has several black small patches on elytra, while in others these patches are present only along suture or missing completely. All specimens are morphologically similar and undoubtedly represent just colour forms of a single species. The ochraceous specimens just with two small specks black on the disc of pronotum perfectly match the type of C. advena and hence I synonymize C. vittifera with the latter species.

Distribution. Argentina: Buenos Aires ( BOHEMAN 1857), Entre Ríos and Santa Fe ( SPAETH 1932, present paper).