Repsimus manicatus (Swartz, 1817)

Seidel, Matthias & Reid, Chris A. M., 2021, Taxonomic changes resulting from a review of the types of Australian Anoplognathini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae) housed in Swedish natural history collections, Zootaxa 4908 (2), pp. 225-238 : 234-236

Repsimus manicatus (Swartz, 1817)

Rutela manicata Swartz, 1817 (in Schönherr 1817: 64)

Rutela bracteatus Drapiez, 1819: 135 Blanchard 1851: 224 (synonymy)

Anoplognathus brownii MacLeay, 1819: 144 ; Burmeister 1844: 450 (synonymy)

Anoplognathus dytiscoides MacLeay, 1819: 144 ; Dejean 1833: 155 (synonymy)

Rutela ruficollis Thunberg, 1822: 310 ; new synonym

Types. Rutela manicata Swartz, 1817 : lectotype (present designation): ♀: “ Anoplognathus / manicatus / Nova Holl : / Falderm. // Typus // NHRS-JLKB / 000029811 // Sch. macleayi Fischer / type probably in Moscow” (NHRS); paralectotype (1): ♀: “ N. Holl. / Mack Leay // Typus // NHRS-JLKB / 000029811 // Rutela / manicata Swartz ” ( NHRS) ; Rutela ruficollis Thunberg, 1822 : lectoype (present designation): ♀: “a // Uppsala Univ. Zool. Mus. / Thunbergsaml. nr. 3898 / Rutela ruficollis / TYP” ( UUZM) ; Anoplognathus brownii MacLeay, 1819 : lectotype (present designation): ♀: “ Repsimus brownii ” [in WS MacLeay’s handwriting] ( MMS) ; paralectotypes (3): 3♀: shared label with lectotype ( MMS) ; Repsimus dytiscoides MacLeay, 1819 : lectotype (present designation): ϐ: “ Repsimus dytiscoides M.L /— manicatus Schon /—femoratus Dej. / ϐ” [in WS MacLeay’s handwriting] ( MMS) ; paralectotype: (1): ϐ: shared label with lectotype ( MMS) .

Remarks. We designate lectotypes for Rutela ruficollis ( Fig. 7 F–G), Repsimus manicatus ( Fig. 7 A–D), Anoplognathus dytiscoides ( Fig. 7 L–N), and Anoplognathus brownii ( Fig. 7 H–J) to fix the identities of these names.

Carne (1958) examined syntypes of Repsimus manicatus ( Fig. 7 A–E) in NHRS. Rutela ruficollis is conspecific with R. manicatus and therefore placed in synonymy. The types of MacLeay’s two species were recorded in the Macleay Museum, Sydney, by Carne: “type of manicatus in NRS , those of Macleay species in MACL” ( Carne 1958: 180). In the 1970s all identified coleopteran type material was removed from the Macleay Museum (Sydney) and placed in ANIC (Canberra) ( Britton & Stanbury 1981). Two syntypes of A. brownii were noted ( Britton & Stanbury 1981: 250). However, it is evident from their labels that these specimens do not form part of the original type series as they were collected in the 1830s. They do not have a type status, so Carne’s decision was not based on type examination.

In MMS we found two sets of specimens associated with old labels written by William Sharp MacLeay (handwriting identified by Jude Philp, personal communication, May 2018), but without any indication of type status. There are four specimens (all females) associated with a label “ Repsimus brownii ” ( Fig. 7K ) and two specimens (both males) associated with the label “ R. dytiscoides ” ( Fig. 7O ). All six have the same short pin with a wrapped metal head. These appear to be the original pins used by Alexander MacLeay (Jude Philp, personal communication) and the specimens fit the original descriptions by his son, William Sharp MacLeay (1819). In the absence of any evidence to the contrary we believe that these two sets of specimens represent the type material of A. brownii and A. dytiscoides . We have selected the best-preserved specimens in each series as lectotypes ( Fig. 7 H–O). We suspect that Carne overlooked the type material of MacLeay’s species as he was meticulous in labelling specimens he examined and the MacLeay types noted above lack Carne’s labels. Our examination of the type series of R. brownii and R. dytiscoides confirms their synonymy with A. manicatus , as originally proposed by Burmeister (1844) and Dejean (1833), respectively. The validity of the synonymy of R. bracteatus with R. manicatus has not been examined for this work. The status of Repsimus manicatus montanus Lea, 1919 is not dealt with here.

Repsimus manicatus occurs from eastern Victoria to southeastern Queensland and is a common species around Sydney ( AMS). It is distinguished by the red pronotum, almost glabrous ventrites, and greatly swollen male metatibiae .

Figures

FIGURE 7. Male lectotype (A–D) and female paralectotype (E) of Rutela manicata Swartz, 1817, female lectotype of Rutela ruficollis Thunberg, 1822 (F–G), female lectotype of Anoplognathus brownii MacLeay, 1819 (H–K), and male lectotype of Anoplognathus dytiscoides MacLeay, 1819 (L–O). A, E–F, H, L, Dorsal habitus; B, G, I, M, ventral habitus; C, J, N, lateral habitus; D, frontal view. K, O, labels; Photographs H–O by Jude Philp.