Lyterius Schönherr, 1844

Prena, Jens, Hsiao, Yun & Oberprieler, Rolf G., 2023, New combinations and synonymies in the weevil genus Lyterius Schönherr (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), with a conspectus of historical works on Daldorff’s Sumatran beetles, Zootaxa 5380 (1), pp. 26-36 : 27-29

Lyterius Schönherr, 1844

The type species of Lyterius is Rhynchaenus musculus Fabricius, 1802 , by original designation. Illiger (1805) synonymised its name with Curculio abdominalis Weber, 1801 , an act overlooked by Schönherr (1844) and subsequent cataloguers. Boheman (in Schönherr 1844) speculated that the two names might refer to the male and female of the same species but confused the names in his discussion. All known specimens had been taken by Daldorff in Sumatra during the voyage from Denmark to his newly assigned workplace in Friedrichsnagor (today’s Serampore), India. He first spent substantial time in the Cape region of South Africa and in Madagascar ( Kordes 1804) and subsequently explored the surrounding of Bengkulu ( Heyne 1814), a trading post of the British East India Company and likely type locality of Daldorff’s Sumatran specimens, as surmised by Reid & Beatson (2015) and Hämäläinen (2016).

Two long-standing issues need attention, one concerning date priority and the other the ownership and later fate of the specimens described by Weber (1801). Because five people worked simultaneously on Daldorff’s Sumatran beetles and described about 160 nominal species in quick succession, we provide in Table 1 an overview of the early, pre-1810 publications, along with their temporal order and the original repositories of the material. We accept arguments in WTaxa (2020) and the sources cited therein that the second volume of Systema eleutheratorum ( Fabricius 1802) was issued later than the first ( Fabricius 1801) and that the year on the title page is probably incorrect. Regardless of the year, the date priority of Weber’s descriptions is beyond doubt, because Weber (1801) is cited multiple times in both volumes.

Lee & Beenen (2015) and Reid & Beatson (2015) followed Horn & Kahle (1937) and assumed that Friedrich Weber (1781–1823) described Daldorff’s Sumatran specimens from the collection of his mentor Fabricius in his Observationes entomologicae ( Weber 1801). This interpretation cannot be upheld, because Weber (1801) noted on page vii that he had received most insects from Daldorff, with the owners of all others credited in their respective descriptions (Maximam horum insectorum partem e Sumatra misit coniunctissimus Daldorfius, nonnulla ab aliis adeptus sum amicis, quorum nomina gratissimo animo aeque ac insectarum patriam, si nota fuit, semper adieci.). Weber owned his insect collection at least until 1803, when he exchanged duplicate specimens with Swedish entomologists, such as Sven Ingemar Ljungh (1757–1828) ( Weber & Mohr 1804). The subsequent literature contains speculations but no actual clues about the whereabouts of Weber’s collection. This is remarkable because Weber and fellow entomologist Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann (1770–1840) resided in Kiel from 1805 and Carl Johan Schönherr (1772–1848) began his comprehensive review of existing synonyms in Coleoptera around the same time. Interestingly, Boheman (in Schönherr 1844) stated that he obtained a syntype of C. abdominalis from the Royal Danish Collection. Even though Weber probably met Niels Tønder Lund (1749–1809) and Ove Ramel Sehested (1757–1839) in 1803 during his studies in Copenhagen and may have exchanged specimens with them, we found no evidence in the CGMZB and the ZMUK database that he donated his collection to any of the other original recipients of insects collected by Daldorff in Sumatra, namely Fabricius, Lund, Sehested or Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig (1743–1831). For instance, approximately half of the nineteen Sumatran Chrysomeloidea and Curculionoidea named by Weber remained unrecognised in each of these collections. Those that were recognised are comparatively distinctive and had been interpreted early on, for example by Illiger (1801b, 1805). A few additional subsequent interpretations in the MfNB collection apply to specimens collected by Bernt Wilhelm Westermann (1781–1868) in Pulau Pinang and by Engelhard Georg Ludwig Krebs (1792–1844) in South Africa, not to specimens of the Weber Collection.

Although the exact circumstances remain unknown, we consider Weber’s insect collection to be lost, although a few specimens may survive in other collections. CGMZB record #52136 states that Hellwig received his two Lyterius specimens from Daldorff. They obviously were not part of Lund’s 1803 donation ( Muggelberg 1975), specimens of which are generally listed with Lund as donor (for example #36710, #37472, #37619). The other two known specimens are in the combined Lund-Sehested Collection (ZMUK). Without doubt they are syntypes of Rh. musculus , but the original owner is no longer ascertainable except that it was either Lund or Sehested but not Fabricius. Fabricius (1802) did not record the repository of Rh. musculus in the description, thereby leaving the impression that he was the owner. No other specimens could be located, and therefore Daldorff’s original series may have consisted of just these four plus Weber’s specimen(s). Originally, they were pinned in Fabricius-fashion through the left elytron (one between pronotum and elytron) and later remounted on thin pins (Hellwig Collection) or points (Lund-Sehested Collection).

For the sake of nomenclatural stability, we here designate the female syntype of Rh. musculus ( Fig. 2 ) in the ZMUK as lectotype for Rh. musculus and as neotype for C. abdominalis . Affixed to the pin are a small green square and a printed type label. This is the specimen treated in Schönherr (1844) under L. musculus , the type species of Lyterius . The male paralectotype of Rh. musculus ( Fig. 1 ) in the ZMUK has an additional label “Sumatra / Daldorff / Mus. S. & T. L. / Rhynchaenus / musculus / Fabr.” and is the specimen treated under L. abdominalis in Schönherr (1844). This neotype designation makes Rh. musculus an objective junior synonym of C. abdominalis and provides maximum nomenclatural stability. The two historical specimens preserved in the MfNB ( Fig. 6 , labels of male) have no type status.

Figures

FIGURES 1–5. Type species/specimens of Lyterius Schönherr, Plaxes Pascoe and Barisoma Motschulsky. 1, 2, paralectotype male and lectotype female of Rhynchaenus musculus Fabricius (ZMUK, Lund-Sehested Collection), type species of Lyterius; 3, 4, lectotype male and paralectotype female of Plaxes impar Pascoe (MSNG); 5, syntypes male and female of Barisoma pandanicola Motschulsky (ZMMU). Photographs 1–4 by Anne Mack (ZMUK), 5 by Vladimir Savitsky (ZMMU).

FIGURES 6–8. Labels associated with first specimen of historical series. 6, Lyterius abdominalis in MfNB (original labels replaced in 1870); 7, Plaxes impar in MSNG (lectotype, see Fig. 3); 8, Plaxes impar in NHMUK (paralectotype, photograph by Keita Matsumoto).