Stolas cruentata ( Erichson, 1847 )

Sekerka, Lukáš, 2016, Taxonomic and nomenclatural changes in Cassidinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 56 (1), pp. 275-344 : 330-331

Stolas cruentata ( Erichson, 1847)

Cyrtonota cruentata Erichson, 1847: 152 (original description).

Mesomphalia deplorabunda Boheman, 1857: 41 (original description), syn. nov.

Type localities. Cyrtonota cruentata : ‘ Republica Peruana’ ; Mesomphalia deplorabunda : original type locality ‘ Bolivia’ modified here to Bolivia, Department of Cochabamba, Territory of the Yuracaré people according to the additional information from the Register of the BMNH collections.

Type material examined. Cyrtonota cruentata : HOLOTYPE: ♀, pinned, ‘11101 [w, p, s] || Type [red, p, cb] || cruentata | Er. Boh. | Perù v.Tschudi [g, hw, cb] || HOLOTYPE | des. L. Borowiec [r, p, cb] || HOLOTYPUS | Cyrtonota | cruentata | Erichson, 1847 | des. L. Borowiec [r, p, cb, bf]’ ( ZMHB).

Mesomphalia deplorabunda : HOLOTYPE: ♀, pinned (missing right antenna): ‘Type [w, p, s, c, rf] || Bolivia [w, hw, s, circle label] || 46 | 70 [hw on underside of preceding label] || deplorabunda | Bhn. n. sp. [b, hw by Boheman, s] || Mesomphalia | deplorabunda | Type Boh. [w, hw by Gahan, cb]’ ( BMNH).

Remarks. Describing Cyrtonota cruentata, ERICHSON (1847) did not state how many specimens he had at his disposal. However, he mentioned a single length measurement and also according to the ZMHB register number there was only a single specimen hence considered as holotype by monotypy.

BOHEMAN (1857) described Mesomphalia deplorabunda presumably from a single specimen as he gave a single length measurement and did not indicate any specimen in his collection ( BOHEMAN 1862). This taxon was enigmatic to subsequent authors and was listed only in catalogues and SPAETH (1914) transferred it to Pseudomesomphalia (= Stolas ). In my opinion, the holotype of S. deplorabunda is only a uniformly black specimen of S. cruentata as the two taxa are nearly identical besides colouration. Typical S. cruentata has a red and slightly elevated reticulation on elytra. This reticulation is structurally also present in S. deplorabunda but is black and its punctation appears slightly coarser than in typical S. cruentata . I consider these differences as intraspecific variability and hereby synonymize S. deplorabunda with S. cruentata .

Distribution. Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru ( SPAETH 1942; BOROWIEC 1996, 2002, 2009c).