Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 59(2) June 2002 93 Case 3202 Podalgus Burmeister, 1847 and Philoscaptm Brethes, 1919 (Insecta, Coleoptera): proposed conservation by the designation of Podalgus cuniculm Burmeister, 1847 as the type species of Podalgus Frank-Thorsten Krell Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K. (e-mail:
[email protected]) Abstract. The type species of Podalgus Burmeister, 1 847 (scarabaeidae, dynastinae) is formally P. bonariensis Burmeister, 1847 but this fixation has been rejected or ignored by virtually all authors. The purpose of this application is to accept the designation by Arrow (1908) of P. cuniculiis Burmeister, 1847, thereby maintaining the current usage of Podalgus for an abundant small rhinoceros beetle from the northern Afrotropics, North Africa, Arabia and west Asia to northern India, and Philoscaptus Brethes, 1919 (type species Podalgus bonariensis, by monotypy) for South American species. Keywords. Nomenclature; taxonomy; Coleoptera; scarabaeidae; dynastinae; Podalgus; Philoscaptus; Podalgus cuniculus; Philoscaptus bonariensis; rhinoceros beetles; Africa; Asia; South America. 1. Dejean (1833, p. 152) published the nomen nudum Podalgus cuniculus for an undescribed species from Senegal. Burmeister (1847) pubhshed the first description for both the genus (p. 117) and species (p. 119), rendering the names available. Podalgus cuniculus refers to a common and widespread small rhinoceros beetle (scarabaeidae, dynastinae) from Africa, Arabia and western Asia to northern India. Burmeister initially included some American species in Podalgus, the first listed being P. bonariensis Burmeister, 1847 (p. 118) from Argentina. He did not designate a type species for the genus. 2. Later in the same book, Burmeister (1847, p. 542) transferred some of the American species from Podalgus into his new genus Ligyrus. Lacordaire (1856, p. 408) removed the remaining American species from Podalgus and placed them in Scaptophilus Burmeister, 1847, Bothynus Hope, 1837, and in a 'genre nouveau' to which he did not give a name. The last comprised P. bonariensis, P. obesus Burmeister, 1847 and three other species. As a result, only the Afroasian species P. cuniculus remained in Podalgus. 3. Despite this, Reiche (1859, p. 10) designated Podalgus bonariensis from Argentina as the type species of Podalgus, and for P. cuniculus he introduced the new monotypic genus Vertunmus (however, this generic name is twice preoccupied). This taxonomic arrangement was followed only by Gemminger & Harold (1869), Fairmaire (1895; see para. 4 below) and, as far as P. bonariensis is concerned, by Bruch (1911; but not 1915 -see para. 5 below).
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