Telephoroides occidentalis Motschulsky, 1854b

Figs 104–106

Telephoroides occidentalis Motschulsky, 1854b: 60 .

Type material examined

Lectotype (designated here) COUNTRY UNKNOWN (original description lists French Guyana and Brazil) • ♀; “occidenta-,, lis,, Oliv.” // “ Photuris,, fulvipes,, Blanch.” [E. Olivier handwriting]// “typ”; ZIN.

Preservation status

Well-preserved, lacking one elytron.

Remarks

Motschulsky listed “Ol.” as the provider of specimens for this species, perhaps referring to the entomologist G. Olivier. Kazantsev & Nikitsky (2008) found a female syntype at ZMMU. Here, we found another female syntype from ZIN, which we designate as a lectotype. The ZIN syntype lacks a locality label, but the original description listed French Guiana and Brazil as type localities, which match the known distribution of the species (Souto et al. 2019).

Current status

Photuris occidentalis (Motschulsky, 1854b) is a junior synonym of Photuris femoralis Curtis, 1839 (senior synonym). Other junior synonyms of the latter are Photuris fulvipes (Blanchard, 1845), Photuris fruticola (Motschulsky, 1854b), Photuris pallida (Motschulsky, 1854b), and Photuris trivialis Boheman, 1858 .