Drapetes plagiatus (Boheman)

Johnson, Paul J., 2015, A new species of Drapetes Megerle (Coleoptera: Elateridae), with taxonomic summaries and a key to the species of northern North America, Insecta Mundi 2015 (445), pp. 1-13 : 6-7

Drapetes plagiatus (Boheman)

( Fig. 6 )

Lissomus plagiatus Boheman, 1858: 66

Lissomus plagiatus , of LeConte 1859c: 289; Gerstäcker 1860: 174; Drapetes plagiatus , of LeConte 1863a: 44; Gemminger and Harold 1869: 1458; Steinheil 1875: 107; Horn 1890: 203; Fleutiaux 1894: 689, 1895: 160; Woodworth 1913: 196; Hyslop 1916: 16; Schenkling 1928: 9; Thomas 2007: 6

Drapetes praeustus Bonvouloir 1859: 79 ; LeConte 1863a: 78; Gerstäcker 1860: 174; Gemminger and Harold 1869: 1458; Horn 1890: 203; Schenkling 1928: 9

Drapetes praeusta , of Blackwelder 1944: 304 (incorrect gender change)

Drapetes plagiata , of Blackwelder 1944: 304 (incorrect gender change)

Distribution. Belize; Brazil; Colombia; Costa Rica; Guatemala; Panama; Venezuela; United States of America: Florida

Notes. Lissomus leuconotus Gerstäcker (1860) was first given as a synonym of L. plagiatus and is not available (ICZN 1999: Art 11.6).

Drapetes plagiatus has the broadest range of any described Drapetes species ( Blackwelder 1944) . It was originally described from “San Francisco, California”, but Horn (1889) regarded Boheman published localities as “notoriously badly mixed, and no reliance can be placed upon them.” Persson (1971) documented the unreliability of Boheman locality data, and Liebherr et al. (2010) substantiated these prior assessments for some ground beetles ostensibly from Hawai’i. It is untenable that D. plagiatus natively occurs in California and no records or specimens of any Drapetes are known from California in the nearly 160 years since Boheman’s report. Woodworth (1913) merely repeated Boheman’s attribution. Persson (1971) showed that the San Francisco visit occurred following two stops in Panama in late April 1852, and stops in the Galapagos Islands and Hawai’i. This species is not known from either of the latter two regions. The known habitats and distribution for D. plagiatus , indicate that the most likely collecting location was in Panama, either St. Joseph Island [= San José] in the Pearl Archipelago, or Panama City. Neither specific location is definitive, so that the revised type locality is here given broadly as Panama.

Drapetes plagiatus is introduced and recorded from four counties in southern Florida. The earliest specimen seen to date is labeled: Florida, Dade Co., Old Cutler Hammock, May 9, 1990, coll. E.G. Riley (1, TAMU). A specimen was swept from a Ligustrum sp. at Port Everglades, Broward County, Florida by Thomas (2007), then from Collier County, Florida by Smith and Dixon (2007). This species has also been repeatedly collected from Palm Beach County, Florida (B. Mathison, pers. comm.). Thomas (2007) correctly stated the low probability of this species being a potential agricultural or horticultural pest.

Figures

Figures 3–8. Drapetes species, dorsal habitus. 3) Drapetes cylindricus, holotype (image courtesy of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, with permission). 4) Drapetes exstriatus. 5) Drapetes niger. 6) Drapetes plagiatus. 7) Drapetes quadripustulatus. 8) Drapetes rubricollis.