Metacantharis puncticollis Fanti 2020, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Fanti, Fabrizio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cantharidae
Metacantharis
Metacantharis puncticollis

description: Metacantharis puncticollis (Levrat, 1857) comb. nov.
Telephorus puncticollis Levrat, 1857: 418 (reprinted in 1859: 26-27).
Loc. typ.: “ Sicile (ma collection)” [Loc. typ. of Neotypus: “ Messina ”]
= Telephorus Picciolii Ragusa, 1870: 316.
Loc. typ.: “Bosco della Ficuzza (nel maggio scorso)” [synonymized by Ragusa (1873: pp. 235-236) and retracted by Ragusa (1893: p. 40)] [syn. rest.]
= Metacantharis haemorrhoidalis Fab. var. nov. picticollis Ragusa, 1893: 40 [syn. nov.]
= Cantharis (Metacantharis) haemorrhoidalis Fab. a. fraudulenta Fiori, 1914: 81 (80-82) [syn. nov.]
= Cantharis (Metacantharis) haemorrhoidalis Fabr. a. fraudolenta Porta, 1929: 56 [incorrect spelling]
WITTMER 1969 (as M. picciolii): 72 [key], 74, 88 Fig. 2. [aedeagus]; DAHLGREN 1985 (as M. picciolii): 164 [aedeagus]; FANTI 2014: 74 (as M. picciolii).
Regarding Telephorus puncticollis described by Levrat (1857) from Sicily and never found here again (Moscardini 1967: 29, 1968: 92; Fanti 2014: 69-70): Because the type is nowhere to be found, we must rely exclusively on Levrat’s description that is quite eloquent and clear. Levrat, in fact, states that his species Telephorus puncticollis is similar to Telephorus clypeatus (= Metacantharis clypeata) and the coloring of the pronotum (with bands and a little spot) falls perfectly with the colors present in the genus Metacantharis (synonym with M. clypeata already proposed by various authors including, for example, Letzner, 1889). It appears very different from “ Cantharis puncticollis, ” as we know it today from Tunisia and Algeria. Over the years the Sicilian species described by Levrat was considered present in North Africa only because in the latter locality there are specimens with similar coloring, but C. puncticollis is actually absent there. Therefore, the two populations (Sicilian and Tunisian-Algerian) do not belong to the same species and genus. Over the years even more confusion has arisen due to the presence, albeit rare, in Sicily of an Ancistronycha with the coloring of elytra and head similar to the North African population. In reality, however, it is a little different from the original description of T. puncticollis in Levrat. So, basically, in Sicily we find a Metacantharis and an Ancistronycha but not the C. puncticollis as understood before this work and now to be called C. paulonotata Pic. Moscardini, having noticed the presence in Sicily of an Ancistronycha (still Cantharis for him), morphologically and with different aedeagus from the Algerian-Tunisian population “ C. puncticollis,” he described (Moscardini 1967) the taxon C. lucens. He also compares the three specimens that Fiori (1914: 56-61) redescribed as C. puncticollis from Valle Annunziata and Pizzo di Fago in Sicily (Fiori 1914; Moscardini 1968). Therefore, he continued in part to perpetuate the error. In fact, Moscardini did not know about Cantharis sicula Pic or Telephorus puncticollis Levrat and had not even seen and taken into consideration the types of the varieties of Ancistronycha erichsonii (before Cantharis erichsonii): inapicalis Pic and neapolitanus Pic, which could be related with his C. lucens.
Telephorus puncticollis Levrat, 1857 (= Metacantharis puncticollis) clearly takes precedence over other similar species or varieties present in Sicily, such as Telephorus picciolii Ragusa, 1870, placed by the same author (Ragusa 1873, 1893) and by other entomologists (Bertolini 1872-1878; Stein & Weise 1877; Heyden et al. 1883) in synonymy with Cantharis haemorrhoidalis (= Metacantharis clypeata) and/or with Cantharis puncticollis Levrat, but subsequently listed as a valid species close to M. clypeata by Wittmer (1969). Telephorus puncticollis clearly takes precedence over Metacantharis haemorrhoidalis var. picticollis Ragusa, 1893 and Cantharis (Metacantharis) haemorrhoidalis a. fraudulenta Fiori, 1914. It should be noted that before Levrat’s paper, Kirby (1837) had used the same name Telephorus (Malthacus) puncticollis for a species from North America, now Malthacus puncticollis (Takahashi 2007). However, because the two species are no longer thought to be congeners after 1899, and in accordance with article 23.9.5. of the Code (ICZN 1999), the species of Levrat (a junior homonym) must not be automatically replaced with the first available name without intervention by the Commission.
The Levrat’s holotype has been irreparably dispersed or destroyed. Because the binomial Telephorus picciolii Ragusa (now synonymous of M. puncticollis) has been considered valid and separated again and recently by Metacantharis clypeata for some differences in the dorsal shield of the aedeagus (Wittmer 1969; Dahlgren 1985, 1987), the name to be attributed to this species is precisely Metacantharis puncticollis (Levrat, 1857).
In the absence of a type and in the presence of the taxonomic problems highlighted above (also for the differences between M. picciolii and M. clypeata see: Wittmer 1969), it is absolutely necessary to designate the neotypus (ICZN 1999 Art. 75.). The types of the first synonym in the literature (Telephorus picciolii Ragusa), it was not possible for me to trace them (probably still preserved), and the collection of Enrico Ragusa itself is, unfortunately, not very usable (the collection has also been left to its own destiny for a long time). As a result, I chose and designate here as the neotypus one of the male specimens of the Wittmer collection: the specimen that Wittmer had taken to rehabilitate the species M. picciolii and also from the same type locality of M. puncticollis di Levrat (i.e., Sicily) and morphologically coherent (same color and habitus) with this description. In the Walter Wittmer collection, preserved at the Natural History Museum of Basel (Naturhistorisches Museum Basel) in Switzerland, there are over 40 specimens, and the neotypus designated here is labeled “Messina// Holdhaus” “Naturhistorisches//Museum Basel/ /Coll. W. Wittmer,” to which a red card with the word “ Neotypus ” has been added. Furthermore, this designation of the neotype should not raise objections from the specialists of the group in question (ICZN 1999 Art. 75.4. Recommendation 75B.).
Note. Metacantharis puncticollis is endemic to Italy and very abundant in Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily (Fanti 2014: 74), Marche (present work) and Emilia-Romagna (present work). The species is clearly present in the whole Italian Apennines from Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna and absent in the Alps and Prealps. It is very similar to Metacantharis clypeata that is found in Europe, European Russia, Armenia, Turkey, Iran and Northern Italy until Emilia-Romagna (I know: 1 male, Fanano - Lago Pratignano (MO), 11.v.2017, coll. Museum of Bergamo; 1 male and 2 females, Monte Bue - Lago Nero (PC), 24.vi.1967, Liberti leg.). M. clypeata is also reported from Algeria (Kazantsev & Brancucci 2007: 255), a citation that I consider dubious.
The distinction between the two species is possible only at the aedeagic level (Wittmer 1969; Dahlgren 1985, 1987). For M. puncticollis there exists the variety fraudulenta, with a very large pronotal black spot, which is reported from Sicily: Caltagirone (Fiori 1914; Luigioni 1929), Piazza Armerina, Castrogiovanni (Fiori 1914), Madonie (Luigioni 1929) and more generally as Italy (Delkeskamp 1939, 1977). The variety picticollis, characterized by two small black lines on the pronotum, which for Porta (1929) is usually a characteristic of the female, is reported from Sicily (Bertolini 1904; Fiori 1914; Porta 1929; Delkeskamp 1939, 1977): Madonie (Ragusa 1893; Luigioni 1929), Piazza Armerina (Ragusa 1893); Lazio (Porta 1929): Colle Obaco - Guarcino (Luigioni & Tirelli 1911); Tuscany, Roman Apennines, Puglia (Luigioni 1929) and Abruzzo National Park (Luigioni 1931).
In Sicily Metacantharis puncticollis can only be confused with Cantharis decipiens and Cantharomorphus longipes Fiori, 1914. Cantharis decipiens has both sexes with claws simple equipped with a basal tooth. Cantharomorphus longipes is an endemic, rare species from Sicily that has longer elytra, longer legs, a pronotum that’s more rounded with a different black mark, and the male’s claws are not bifid.
description: Published as part of Fanti, Fabrizio, 2020, Taxonomic notes on some Cantharidae of Sicily and North Africa, pp. 141-152 in Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 20 (2) on pages 147-149, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10905414