Bonomiella insolitunguicolata Conci, 1942

Cicchino, Armando C. & González-Acuña, Daniel Alfonso, 2012, Species in the genus Bonomiella Conci, 1942 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from Argentina and Chile, Zootaxa 3427, pp. 47-56 : 53-54

Bonomiella insolitunguicolata Conci, 1942

Conci 1942. Studi Trentini di Scienze Naturali 23 (2): 2–4, figs 1–5. Hopkins & Clay 1952: 51.

Price et al. 2003: 93.

Type host. “ Colombo ”.

Remarks. female body measurements given by Conci (1942: 4, repeated in Tendeiro 1980: 51) fall within the range given by Złotorzycka & Lucińska (1967: 344) for B. columbae . Futhermore, drawings and body measurements given by Conci (1942: figs. 1–5) fit well with those given by Emerson (1957, fig 1), Złotorzycka & Lucińska (1967) and Ribbeck (1972) for B. columbae , as well as with the female of this species examined by us (see above, fig. 1 and Table 1 ). Regarding its type host, Hopkins & Clay (1952: 51) stated that it is “(Colombo) = Some member of the Columbidae ”, and Price et al. (2003: 93) as “Some columbiform”. It must be noted that in Italian language the word “Colombo” currently refers to the male of the rocky pigeon ( C. livia ) while “Colomba” if for female, and “Piccione” for this species including both sexes. In spite of this, it is reasonable to think that the type host may be, in fact, C. livia . If this assumption proves to be correct, B. columbae would become a junior synonym of B. insolitunguicolata , the type-species of the genus. To solve this intriguing question is to examine the type specimens (3 females), if still in existence, presumable housed at the Genoa Museum. An early attempt to examine then has been carried out by one of us (ACC) in 1972 asking Dr. Conci about the returning and destination of the specimens examined by him in 1941-42. In an extensive letter he informed that he returned them to the Genoa Museum in 1942, just in the full development of the Second World War, and ignoring if Genoa Museum received these specimens. By 1973 the authorities also informed that the referred specimens have not been still found in the entomological collections, at that date in process of cataloging. Since that time, we no longer insisted on this subject.

Notes: (1) average of 11 females and 1 male. (2) average of the range given in page 23. (3) taken using the scale of

illustration of the paper, (4) average of 6 specimens, (5) average of 4 specimens. (6) for 1 male, 1 female, (7) average of

the ranges provided in the text, from 3 specimens.