Phymatodes (Phymatodes) fulgidus Hopping, 1928

Wappes, James E. & Santos-Silva, Antonio, 2019, A new species and synonymy in North American Phymatodes (Phymatodes) Mulsant, 1839 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae: Callidiini), Insecta Mundi 687, pp. 1-9 : 2

Phymatodes (Phymatodes) fulgidus Hopping, 1928

Phymatodes fulgidus Hopping 1928: 246 .

Phymatodes rainieri Van Dyke 1937 . New synonym.

According to Van Dyke (1937), when commenting on Phymatodes rainieri : “Elytra two and a half times as long as broad, about three and a half times as long as prothorax, disk rather flattened, suture feebly elevated, surface coarsely punctate, rugose and shining.” Linsley (1964) only provided the original descriptions of P. (P.) rainieri and P. (P.) fulgidus and reported that the latter “is apparently very close to P. rainieri .” In the key, he separated the species by the color (piceous in P. (P.) rainieri ; brown in P. (P.) fulgidus ), and shape of the frontal impression (transverse in P. (P.) rainieri ; acute above in P. (P.) fulgidus ). However, species with brown integumental color often show great variation, and may be from very light to very dark. Although, Van Dyke (1937) did not report the shape of the sulcus between frons and clypeus in the photograph of the holotype it appears to be very much the same as in P. (P.) fulgidus .

According to Swift and Ray (2010) the Phymatodes key character (couplet 27) for P. rainieri is: “Elytra almost entirely glabrous, impunctate”; and in their remarks section, “This unique species, previously known from only the type specimen, is distinct within the genus. The pronotum and elytra are almost entirely glabrous and impunctate on the dorsal surface, with only a few scattered, long, golden setae towards the elytral apices. No other species of Phymatodes possesses this combination of characters … Specimens examined: 2, including the type of P. (P.) rainieri .” The affirmations on the elytral sculpturing by Swift and Ray (2010) contradict the original description. Furthermore, examination of a holotype photograph clearly indicates that the elytra are distinctly punctate, and the punctures are equal or nearly so to that in P. (P.) fulgidus . Therefore, based on holotype photographs of both species ( Bezark 2018), original descriptions, and geographical distribution, P. (P.) rainieri is placed as a junior synonym of (P.) P. fulgidus .