Merodon rufitibius Rondani, 1845

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 257

Merodon rufitibius Rondani, 1845

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1845f: 259 (key), 265 (description).

TYPE LOCALITY: Rossi (1790: 292) gave no type locality in the original description of Merodon avidus ( Rossi, 1790) , but presumably it is Tuscany ( Italy) because the work deals with insects “ in provinciis Florentina et Pisana collegit [collected in provinces of Florence and Pisa]” ( Rossi 1790: 292).

TYPE MATERIAL: see Remarks.

CURRENT STATUS: junior synonym of Merodon avidus ( Rossi, 1790) ( Peck 1988: 167, Hurkmans 1993: 191, Belcari et al. 1995a: 16).

REMARKS: Rondani (1845f: 265) considered Merodon avidus ( Rossi, 1790) and Merodon pruni ( Rossi, 1790) as the same species but, instead of applying the Principle of Priority, incorrectly proposed the substitute name Merodon rufitibius . Rondani (1857: 66) reaffirmed having proposed Merodon rufitibius to combine Merodon avidus and Merodon pruni . Schiner (1860: 345; 1864: 108), Bezzi (1900a: 91), Villeneuve (1903: 115), Bezzi & Stein (1907: 120), Kertész (1910: 279) and Sack (1931: 327) placed it in synonymy with Merodon avidus while Loew (1862a: 165), Bezzi (1892: 85, 1894: 284) and Becker (1907: 253) considered it as a valid species. The type material for Merodon rufitibius will be the same as for the name it was proposed to replace, i.e., Merodon avidus . The type material of this latter species has been presumably lost ( Hurkmans, 1993: 193); Popović et al. (2015: 795) designated a neotype in the FSUNS. Under the name Merodon rufitibius there are two males and seven females in the MZUF, one male and one female in the MSNC and one male and one female (non-types) in the MZUB. Hurkmans (1993: 192) incorrectly considered the MZUF specimens as the types.