Ancistronycha neapolitana Fanti 2020, comb. nov. et stat. nov.
Creators: name: Fanti, Fabrizio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cantharidae
Ancistronycha
Ancistronycha neapolitana

description: Ancistronycha neapolitana (Pic, 1918) comb. nov. et stat. nov.
Cantharis Erichsoni v. nov. neapolitanus Pic, 1918: 22. Loc. typ.: “Environs de Naples (Pic)”
[Ancistronycha is a feminine name therefore the correct declination proposed here is neapolitana, declinatio nov.]
= Cantharis sicula Pic, 1906: 197-198. Loc. typ.: “ Sicile (communiqué par Mr. E. Ragusa et aussi dans ma collection)”
[syn. nov.] [junior homonym of Cantharis livida var. sicula Bourgeois, 1893: 17]
= Cantharis lucens Moscardini, 1967: 30 (aedeagus drawings - caption), 32-33 [syn. nov.]
= Cantharis lucens f. fumosothorax Moscardini, 1967: 33 “[syn. nov.]”. [Name not available because it dates back to 1961 (ICZN 1999Art. 45.6.3.)]
PORTA 1929: 56, 56 note [C. sicula]; MOSCARDINI 1967: 29, 30 Fig. 1 – cd [aedeagus, as C. lucens], 31 [distribution map], 1968: 55 [localities, as C. lucens]; KAZANTSEV 2005 (as A. lucens): 205 [aedeagus], 207 [key]; FANTI 2014: 64 (as A. lucens), 70 (as C. sicula).
Cantharis sicula Pic (1906) was found to be a junior homonym of Cantharis livida var. sicula Bourgeois, 1893 (see also Fiori 1914: 60) and therefore is a name that’s not available (ICZN 1999 Art. 57.2.). While the name of Bourgeois was described before 1961 and, without any ambiguity, as a variety (“var.”), it must be considered of subspecific rank and therefore available (ICZN 1999 Art. 45.6.4.). Furthermore, in addition to this validity, it should be noted that the Bourgeois species was sometimes considered a “subspecies” (e.g., Portevin 1931: 407 [indicated as a variety but intuitively should be considered a subspecies]) before 1985 (ICZN 1999 Art. 45.6.4.1.), and sometimes even more recently (Liberti 1995). Therefore, it is unclear what name should be used for the species C. sicula Pic. The study of the C. sicula holotype allowed me to attribute it, as had already been suggested by Fanti (2014), to the genus Ancistronycha Märkel. The specimen is a female, and has an evident talon-shaped tooth on the claw in the front legs and a pronotum with slightly rounded sides. Comparing it with the specimens of Ancistronycha lucens f. fumosothorax from the Fiori collection in the Experimental Evolutionary Biology Department of the University of Bologna and also based on work by Moscardini (1967), it is possible to determine that it is the same species. This aspect was, in a very small part, also suggested by Fiori himself (1914: 57, 59-60); however, he still described them as Cantharis puncticollis Levrat.
When studying the literature of the Ancistronycha varieties ascribable to C. sicula and/or to the related A. erichsonii (Bach, 1852) present in Central-Southern Italy and Sicily and which may be the first available name, we first find a variety described as inapicalis (Pic 1902: 63 sub Cantharis Erichsoni variété inapicalis), which theoretically could take precedence. This variety is, however, described without indication of locality (holotype unobtainable and probably no longer preserved), which remains unknown. In the absence of the type and other information, we can only vaguely hypothesize that it comes from Piedmont / North-West Italy (ICZN 1999 Recommendation 76A.), since the collector is Baudi and most of his collections are from those areas. Therefore, it must still be considered as a form of A. erichsonii (Kazantsev & Brancucci 2007). Later, we find described from the surroundings of Naples, the variety neapolitanus (Pic 1918: 22 sub Cantharis Erichsoni v. nov. neapolitanus), whose holotype has not been located at present (Taghavian-Azari personal communication) but which could still be present and mixed with other species of the Maurice Pic collection. This variety neapolitanus is, however, clearly related to C. sicula (no other species with this coloration are present in the type locality. Furthermore, Cantharis livida and Rhagonycha fulva are different) and therefore is the first name available and should be used instead. Finally, Moscardini described the species Cantharis lucens, which becomes a synonym (Moscardini 1967).
Note. Ancistronycha neapolitana is an Italian endemic species (though there is a citation of A. erichsonii from Dalmatia that Moscardini, 1968 refers to as this species), that is rather rare and is found in medium-high altitudes on Umbelliferae from Emilia-Romagna to Sicily (Moscardini 1967: 32-33; Fanti 2014: 64 and 70), and with only a specimen known from 200 meters above sea level (present work). The northern limit is not well known but it is currently considered the area of the Orrido di Botri, Minucciano, San Godenzo (present work) and Camaldoli in Tuscany, and Fanano in Emilia-Romagna (present work, and first citation for Emilia-Romagna). In the Ligurian Apennines: Torriglia, Monte Penna (Moscardini 1967), and in the Alps and Prealps, it is replaced by the related A. erichsonii (Bach), which is a species from Central Europe, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey. In the Apennine, A. neapolitana has a head, pronotum and legs testaceous with black tarsi (sometimes first tarsomere of the front legs is two-colored: black and testaceous), and has an elytra with black apex that extends to the elytral half (two females from Calabria mentioned in this work, have black elytra with only the testaceous humeri, of which in one of these the testaceous part covers a very little portion of the humeri themselves. Fig. 5). In Sicily, where only four specimens are currently known (coll. Pic: 1 female and coll. Fiori: 1 male 2 females), it is characterized by a head behind the eyes that is brown-piceous and by a brown-piceous pronotum with more or less broadly yellowish sides, with yellowish testaceous legs and fully testaceous elytra or with the blackish apex up to about half of its length.
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 145-147, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10905414