Merodon italicus Rondani, 1845

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 256

Merodon italicus Rondani, 1845

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1845f: 257 (key), 259 (description).

TYPE LOCALITY: “ in Italia [ Italy]” ( Fabricius 1794: 283) [type locality for Merodon natans ( Fabricius, 1794) ].

TYPE MATERIAL: see Remarks.

CURRENT STATUS: junior synonym of Merodon natans Fabricius, 1794 ( Peck 1988: 172) ; valid species ( Vujić et al. 2011: 83); unnecessary substitute name for Merodon natans Fabricius, 1794 and junior synonym of Merodon natans Fabricius, 1794 (this work).

REMARKS: Rondani (1845f: 257) considered the females of Merodon natans ( Fabricius, 1794) and the males of Merodon melancholicus ( Fabricius, 1794) as belonging to the same species but, instead of applying the Principle of Priority, incorrectly proposed the substitute name Merodon italicus (1845f: 257) . He later ( Rondani 1857: 62) reaffirmed his proposing to combine Merodon melancholicus and Merodon natans . Merodon italicus was considered as a synonym of Merodon melancholicus by Schiner (1860: 347, 1864: 108) and Bezzi & Stein (1907: 119) and as a synonym of Merodon natans by Kertész (1910: 277), Sack (1931: 322) and Peck (1988: 172). Vujić et al. (2011: 83) incorrectly considered Merodon italicus as a valid species and senior synonym of Merodon longicornis Sack, 1913 . The type material for Merodon italicus will be the same as for the name it was proposed to replace, i. e., Merodon natans . The type material of this latter species is preserved in the ZMUC ( Michelsen 2017: 17). Hurkmans (1993: 191) incorrectly designated one of the three females in the MZUF as lectotype.