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Chrysopilus flaveolus
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Subspecies
No subspecies are recognized.
Original description
Meigen, 1820
Synonyms
Anthrax genius Panzer
1793-1805 (nomen oblitum and unclear synonym)
Leptis flaveola Meigen,
1820
Chrysopilus flaveola
(Meigen, 1820)
Chrysopilus flaveolus
(Meigen, 1820)
Leptis helvola auct. nec.
Meigen, 1820 (confused nomenclature)
Chrysopilus helvolus
auct. nec Meigen, 1820 (confused nomenclature)
Leptis helveola auct. (a
misspelling) (confused nomenclature)
Chrysopilus helveolus
auct. (a misspelling) (confused nomenclature)
The nominal Leptis flaveola has been described by Meigen (1820), but in
this description Meigen already stated that the female specimen named as "Anthrax
Genius" and figured in the Fauna
Germanica picture cards by Panzer that were published in 109 separate
issues between 1793 and 1805 represents the female of this species.
Thus, Meigen indicates that his new name Leptis flaveola is a junior
synonym of Anthrax genius. On the same page and directly after Leptis
flaveola, Meigen describes another species, Leptis helvola, that he
describes as "identical to the former [i.e. Leptis flaveola]", but the
yellow hairs are more golden and the femur is completely dark, not dark
with a yellow tip. The taxonomic history of these two names has since
been the subject of much confusion. The confusion was discovered and
documented by Krivosheina (2006). This author investigated a larger
number of specimens in several collections that were labeled as either
"flaveolus" or "helvolus". None of the specimens agreed with the
description of Leptis helvolus. However, the specimens fall into two
separate groups that Krivosheina names "Chrysopilus flaveolus" and
"Chrysopilus sp."
At present I cannot
resolve this question with confidence and a
satisfactory solution has to await the revision of the types. For the
time being I recognize the Leptis flaveolus described by Meigen as a
bona species and the name Chrysopilus flaveolus as the valid name.
Anthrax genius is here regarded as a nomen oblitum as it has not been
in use after Panzer´s work. In addition, it is only an unclear
synonym, because females in this genus cannot be confidently assigned
to species on the basis of a drawing, even though Meigen himself
regarded this name as a synonym of his Leptis flaveola.
The Leptis helvola
described by Meigen is a more difficult case. It
seems that the type specimen (which has been sent to Meigen by Megerle
von Mühlfeldt and was collected in Austria) is the only specimen
known of this species. Other specimens attributed to "helvolus" in the
past are either Chrysopilus flaveolus or agree neither with the
description of "flaveolus" nor "helvolus" and thus seem to represent an
undescribed species Chrysopilus sp. (see Krivosheina 2006). There are
several possibilities:
1) Leptis helvola refers
to a (rare?) bona species (endemic to Austria?)
2) Leptis helvola refers
to an aberrant specimen of Chrysopilus
flaveolus
3) Leptis helvola refers
to an aberrant specimen of Chrysopilus sp.
sensu Krivosheina (2006)
4) Leptis helvola refers
to another species of Chrysopilus
Presently, I cannot
distinguish between these possibilities. However,
all records of the "helvola" taxon from Germany apparently concern in
fact Chrysopilus flaveolus. Thus the "helvola" taxon is so far only
confirmed for Austria and, therefore, I do not include this name in the
list of German species. The Chrysopilus sp. sensu Krivosheina (2006)
appears to be an eastern European taxon with records mainly from
Romania.
Identification
Distribution
Biology
This page has been
updated on September 10, 2010
This site is online since May 31, 2005
Copyright © by Nikola-Michael Prpic. All rights reserved.
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