Babia (Babia) costalis (Forsberg, 1821)

Bezděk, Jan, 2016, Identity of taxa proposed inClythra (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cryptocephalinae) by Carl Peter Forsberg (1821), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 56 (2), pp. 769-784 : 772

Babia (Babia) costalis (Forsberg, 1821)

Clythra humeralis Fabricius, 1801: 37 (original description, junior objective homonym).

Clythra costalis Forsberg, 1821a:271 (new substitute name for Clythra humeralis Fabricius, 1801: 37 , nec Clytra humeralis Schneider, 1792: 192 , now in Labidostomis )

Type locality. ‘Carolina’.

Type material examined. None.

Distribution. USA: South Carolina ( FABRICIUS 1801, OLIVIER 1808), Mexico ( LACORDAIRE 1848; MOLDENKE 1970, 1981).

Comments. As explained previously, FORSBERG (1821a) used the name Clythra costalis only in the ‘key’ part of his publication and associated it with a reference to Clythra humeralis Fabricius, 1801: 37 which is homonymous to Clytra humeralis Schneider, 1792: 192 (now classified in Labidostomis Chevrolat, 1836 ). Clythra costalis is treated here as a new substitute name and not as a valid description in the agreement with MONRÓS (1953). Both names, Fabrician Clythra humeralis and Clythra costalis , are objective synonyms and have the same name bearing type, in agreement with Article 72.7 ( ICZN 1999).

The identity of this species requires further investigation. FABRICIUS (1801) described Clythra humeralis from ‘Carolina’ based on material collected by Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc. As mentioned by BLAKE (1952), Bosc collected exclusively in the surroundings of Charleston in South Carolina and two syntypes of Fabrician Clythra humeralis are deposited now in the Muséum National dʼHistorie Naturelle in Paris. All subsequent authors probably misidentified this taxon using the specimens from Mexico ( LACORDAIRE 1848; JACOBY 1880, 1889; MOLDENKE 1970, 1981). RILEY et al (2003) mentioned Clythra humeralis among ‘names of uncertain application’ and suggested that Clythra humeralis is the species known in North America as Babia quadriguttata ( Olivier, 1791) . The study of both Fabrician and Olivierʼs type specimens is necessary to resolve the identity of the two taxa.