Leopoldius diadematus Rondani, 1845

Sforzi, Alessandra & Sommaggio, Daniele, 2021, Catalog of the Diptera types described by Camillo Rondani, Zootaxa 4989 (1), pp. 1-438 : 95

Leopoldius diadematus Rondani, 1845

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: 1845b: 5 (key), 6 (description).

TYPE LOCALITY: Rondani gave no type locality in his original description but presumably it is Italy because the work deals with Italian species .

TYPE MATERIAL: 3 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀ (only one male and one female are syntypes but they are not labeled as such) with the following labels: 2 ♂♂ ( MZUF: Box 8), Brachyglossum [sic!] Rnd. / diadematus Rnd. ♂ / 374; 1 ♂, 1 ♀ ( MZUF: Box 8), Brachyglossum [sic!] Rnd. / diadematus Rnd. ♀ / 374; 1 ♀ ( OUMNH Verrall-Collin Coll.: Box. 1), Type / B. diadematus Coll. Big. / B. diadematus ♀ Europe, Rondani / Conops ; 1 ♀ ( OUMNH Verrall- Collin Coll.: Box. 1), Typ. Rd. diadematus / 44 / sec. typ. Rondanii / C. diademata / E. Kow.

CURRENT STATUS: valid species ( Chvála & Smith 1988: 247, Rivosecchi & Scaramozzino 1995: 2, Stuke 2017: 58).

REMARKS: Rondani (1845b: 6) described both sexes of Leopoldius diadematus without specifying the exact number of specimens: “ marem et foeminam collegi [I collected the male and the female]”. In his redescription Rondani (1857: 221) specified having described the species on a single male and a single female: “ quando speciem hanc evulgavi, duo tantum ejusdem exemplaria a me observata fuerunt, masculum unum et alterum foemineum [When I described this species I observed only two specimens, first one male and later one female]”. Stuke (2017: 58) reported three male syntypes and one female syntype in the MZUF. There are three males and one female in the MZUF and two females in the OUMNH: these specimens did not have any label indicating their type status. We are unable to single out the two specimens upon which Rondani based his description. We leave the recognition of the two syntypes to a future specialist.