Hammatoderus thoracicus White 1858
Creators: name: Botero, Juan Pablo
name: Santos-Silva, Antonio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cerambycidae
Hammatoderus
Hammatoderus thoracicus

description: Hammatoderus thoracicus (White, 1858)
(Figs. 21–25)
Hammoderus thoracicus White, 1858: 275; Chevrolat, 1861: 191 (syn.); Bates, 1880: 100; Aurivillius, 1922: 105 (cat.); Breuning, 1943: 263.
Plagiohammus thoracicus; Dillon & Dillon, 1941: 95; Blackwelder, 1946: 595 (checklist); Breuning, 1961: 333; Monné, 1994: 37 (cat.); Monné & Giesbert, 1994: 180 (checklist); Monné & Hovore, 2006: 270 (checklist); Constantino et al., 2014: 14, 15; Monné, 2016: 825 (cat.).
Hammoderus spinipennis Thomson, 1860: 100. Syn. nov.
Hammatoderus spinipennis; Gemminger & Harold, 1873: 3022 (cat.).
Plagiohammus spinipennis; Dillon & Dillon, 1941: 93; Monné, 2016: 824 (cat.).
Hammatoderus jacoby-i Nonfried, 1894: 141.
Hammoderus jacobyi; Aurivillius, 1922: 105.
Plagiohammus jacobyi; Dillon & Dillon, 1941: 91.
Hammoderus quadriplagiatus Breuning, 1943: 262, fig. 127. Syn. nov.
Plagiohammus quadriplagiatus; Breuning, 1961: 333; Monné, 2016: 823 (cat.).
Geographical distribution. Mexico (Veracruz, Chiapas), Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru.
Type material examined. Holotype of Hammoderus thoracicus White, 1858 (Fig. 24), “S. AMERICA ”, male (BMNH); holotype of Hammoderus spinipennis Thomson, 1860 (Fig. 25), MEXICO, Veracruz, female (MNHN); holotype of Hammoderus quadriplagiatus Breuning, 1943 (Figs. 22–23), VENEZUELA, Merida, male (ZSMC).
Specimens examined. MEXICO, Veracruz: Lake Catemaco, male, 23.VII.1955, P. & C. Vaurie cols. (MNRJ); Cordoba, female, (no date and collector indicated) (MZSP); Yucatan: Quintana Roo (X-Can), 3.VII.1967 (MNRJ); Chichen Itza Hacienda, male, 5.VI.1932; E.P. Creaser col. (MNRJ); Chiapas: Yerba Buena (20 mi N Bochil, 5700 ft.), male, 8.VI.1969 (no collector indicated) (MZSP). EL SALVADOR, Santa Ana: Cerro Verde, male, 1959, J. Bechyné col. (MNRJ). HONDURAS, Atlántida: Tela, female, IV.1929, T.H. Hubbell (MNRJ); Tegucigalpa: male, 11.V.1960, Vanegas col. (MNRJ). COSTA RICA, female, (no date indicated), F. Nevermann col. (MZSP); female, IX.1931, A. Alfaro col. (MZSP); Conorado (1400-1500 m; no Province indicated), male, 20.II.1925, F. Nevermann col. (MZSP); Heredia: male, 22.VI.1952; San Jose, 2 males, V.1952 (MNRJ).
Remarks. White (1858) described Hammoderus thoracicus based on a single male, apparently without a label indicating from where it was: “ Hab. S. America? (H. G. Harrington, Esq.) (Coll. Brit. Mus.)”. Later, Chevrolat (1861) synonymized Hammoderus spinipennis Thomson, 1860 with this species: “Page 100.–80. Hammoderus spinipennis, Th. Arch. i. p. 173. Syn. H. thoracicus, White, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3. ii. p. 275, 1858.– Mexique.”
Although the synonymy proposed by Chevrolat (1861) never has been formally questioned, H. thoracicus and H. spinipennis continued to be considered as valid names by all authors who wrote about them, except Bates (1872) and Gemminger & Harold (1873). Bates (op. cit.) considered these two species as equal, but with doubt: “ Hammoderus spinipennis, Thoms. Classif. Ceramb. p. 100 (1860); (T. thoracicus [sic], White, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1858, p. 266?).” According to Bates (1880): “According to the type specimen this species is very closely allied to H. spinipennis, but sufficiently distinct, the crown of the head having two divergent white lines and the lateral white lines being much broader than in H. spinipennis.” Although Bates (1880) did not make clear about which lateral white lines he was talking, apparently it was about those on pronotum and this differential feature is useless, since it is variable in H. spinipennis.
By comparing photographs of the holotypes of H. thoracicus, a male (Fig. 24) and H. spinipennis, a female (Fig. 25), it is not possible to find consistent differences among them, except: vertex with two divergent white bands in H. thoracicus (absent in all specimens studied by us of H. spinipennis) and the spine at elytral apex closer to suture in H. thoracicus (more distinctly separated in H. spinipennis). However, the white bands at vertex is something that could vary into the species and the shape of elytral apex, it is somewhat variable in the specimens studied. Thus, we propose the synonymy of Hammoderus spinipennis with H. thoracicus.
Breuning (1943) described H. quadriplagiatus from Venezuela: “Proche de laceratus Bat., mais l’épine latérale du pronotum distinctement recourbée en arrière; son disque très éparsement granulé; l’épine apicale des élytres assez éloignée du bout sutural, un peu plus longue et plus pointue. Les trois bandes longitudinales du pronotum sont blanches; la médiane très étroite, parfois complètement atrophiée. Les quatre taches élytrales plus petites; la prémédiane située en sens longitudinal. La pubescence de toute la surface un peu plus foncée.”
Although Breuning (1943) had compared H. quadriplagiatus with H. laceratus, the photograph of the holotype of the former (Fig. 23) shows that it is almost identical to male specimens of H. thoracicus. The only small difference that we can see is that the elytral spine is slightly thicker. However, the elytral spine (shape and position) is somewhat variable in H. thoracicus. Actually, the position of the elytral spine is not different from some specimens of H. spinipennis from Central America. Therefore, H. quadriplagiatus is considered a junior synonym of H. thoracicus.
The concept of H. spinipennis sensu Breuning (1943) is also questionable, since the central band of pubescence on pronotum is variable in this species, while this author affirmed that it is absent. Probably this was the reason why he did not compared H. quadriplagiatus with H. spinipennis.
For complete bibliography on Hammoderus spinipennis see Monné (2016).
description: Published as part of Botero, Juan Pablo & Santos-Silva, Antonio, 2017, Four new species, taxonomic, and nomenclatural notes in Hammatoderus Gemminger & Harold, 1873 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae), pp. 377-397 in Zootaxa 4231 (3) on pages 390-392, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4231.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/290917