Molorchus ulmi Chevrolat, 1838

Nagel, Peter & Schmidlin, Lara, 2014, Silbermann’s “ Revue entomologique ”: Publication Dates for Nomenclatural Purposes and Bibliographic Notes (Insecta, mainly Coleoptera), Zootaxa 3794 (1), pp. 87-107 : 99-101

Description of Molorchus ulmi Chevrolat, 1838 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) and its relation with the Revue entomologique

To date, the description of Molorchus ulmi Chevrolat ( Cerambycidae [longhorn beetles], current classification Necydalis ulmi , see Sama & Löbl 2010) is enigmatic with regard to the source of reference and its contents. Although authors refer to 1838 as the year and the Rev.ent. of Silbermann as the source of publication ( White 1855: 182, cites the page number 73 of “Rev.ent. 1838”), they also acknowledge that in the copies of the journal available to them this section is missing ( Mulsant 1863: 236; 1864: 172; Lacordaire 1869: 478 footnote 1; Brustel et al. 2002: 447). The pagination of volume five being continuous throughout, Mulsant (1862: 236) and Sama & Löbl (2010: 683) suppose a probably unpaginated insert present in few copies only (Löbl, pers. comm., Nov. 2013). Villiers (1978: 221) cites the reference as “Chevrolat, 1838, Centurie de Buprestides, p. 76”.

The original article “Centurie de Buprestides” of Chevrolat is printed on pp. 41–107 of fascicles 25–26 of volume five, followed by a two-page addendum of Silbermann on further jewel beetles (pp. 107–108) and an index of two pages (pp. 109–110) considering both Chevrolat’s and Silbermann’s species. There is no trace of a description of the longhorn beetle Molorchus ulmi in the entire volumes four (1838) and five (1838, 1840) of Rev.ent.

Chevrolat’s “Centurie de Buprestides” was also published as a separate (Strasbourg: Imprimerie G. Silbermann, title page: 1838) ( Fig. 2 ), paginated 1–72, and complemented by pages 73–78 on longhorn beetles: “Du Necydalis major de Linné , Molorchus abbreviatus de Fabricius. ” by the same author ( Gaedike et al. 2012). Detailed reviews of this separate printing including remarks on Molorchus ulmi were already given by Guérin- Méneville (1839: 63) and Erichson (1840a: 282, 328–330, 344). We received a complete copy of this separate printing through courtesy of SDEI. An identical copy exists at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. The copy of the California Academy Library available digitally through BHL and the copy available at the Natural History Museum Bern ( Switzerland) are incomplete, comprising only pages 1–72.

Erichson (1840a: 282) lamented on the non-availability of the fascicles of the Rev.ent. for the year 1838, as for 1837. However, he reports for 1838 on “eine darin [i.e. in Rev.ent.] enthaltene grössere Abhandlung des Herrn Chevrolat” (“a herein [i.e. in Rev.ent.] included comprehensive treatise of Mr. Chevrolat”) which he had received directly from the author. This separately printed treatise is in fact the “Centurie de Buprestides” including Silbermann’s addendum and the index, and Chevrolat’s article on Necydalis / Molorchus with the description of Molorchus ulmi ( Erichson 1840a: 282, 328–330, 344). This last mentioned article was announced as “Hr. Chevrolat stellt in Silbermann’s Revue entomologique eine neue ... Art, Molorchus ulmi , auf ...” (“Mr. Chevrolat describes a new species, M. ulmi , in Silbermann’s Revue entomologique ...”) ( Erichson 1840a: 344). This statement is understandable from the subtitle of the entire separate printing (“Extrait de la Revue entomologique”) and the fact that at this time Erichson did not have the respective fascicles of Rev.ent. available for comparison.

The title page of the separate printing is dated 1838. The manuscript of the original article of Chevrolat’s article on buprestids in volume five of the Rev.ent. was finished in July 1838 (Rev.ent. 5: 41). The wording in Erichson (1840a: 282) is not unequivocal as to whether he had actually received the separate printing in 1838 or only in 1839. We did not find direct further evidence for a publication of this separate printing in 1838 other than the date imprinted on the title page. One may speculate that the inclusion of Chevrolat’s article on the longhorn beetles (including the description of M. ulmi ) in the separate printing is an indication of a publication of this work after fascicles 25–26 (published between September and 21 November 1838, see text above and Table 5 ). We did not trace this separate printing in Bull.ent. or any of the French standard bibliographies (such as Bibl.Fr., J.gén.Litt.Fr., C.r.Séances Acad.Sci). The first evidence of existence is found with the February 1839 issue of Rev.zool. which was available between 4 March and 11 March 1839 (see Guérin-Méneville 1839). On the other hand, there is also no evidence that the work was not available in 1838, the year indicated on the title page. Consequently, according to ICZN (1999: Article 21) the publication date 31 December 1838 has to be chosen for nomenclatural purposes.

The misleading subtitle “Extrait de la Revue entomologique” on the outside front cover of the complete separate printing caused confusion on where the article of Chevrolat on longhorn beetles had been published. All users must have assumed that this statement is valid for all parts of the separate printing. Some of those who had a copy of the journal available regarded their specimen of the Rev.ent. as possibly misprinted, took Chevrolat’s article off the separate printing and inserted it loosely in volume five (Löbl, pers. comm., Nov. 2013). However, this article “Du Necydalis ...” has in fact been exclusively published as part of the separate printing and did never form part of the Rev.ent. Almost certainly, this was originally not intended by Silbermann. Perhaps the manuscript arrived too late to be included in the contemporarily published fascicles 25–26 and 27–28, yet no evidence was found for this or other possible speculations.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Independent publication of Chevrolat (specimen of SDEI library), consisting of a reprint of the Revue entomologique, vol. 5, pp. 41–110, on Buprestidae, and the new article on Cerambycidae (see text for details). a. Outside front cover of booklet, b. First page [p. 3] of reprint, c. First page [p. 73] of new article, d. First page of description of Molorchus ulmi (p. 76).