Forum Entomologi Italiani

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Grecia - Spetses Is. -IX-2014
Lunghezza 11 mm.

Grazie anticipate
Giuseppe

Chrysolina vernalis (Brullé).

Ciao Lech, sai indicare anche quale ssp?

_________________
Roberto Vanzini

Ciao Lech grazie

Giuseppe

To Roberto: quale ssp?

In the new review of world Chrysolina by Bienkowski (2019) he noted only 5 subspecies:

Ch. vernalis vernalis (with ottomana and muchei as synonyms): S and S-E Europe, Asia Minor
Ch. vernalis herii: only Corfu Island
Ch. vernalis pyrenaica (with carbonaria, gallica, canfrancensis as synonyms): C Pyrenees, Catalonia, S France
Ch. vernalis egelida: Spain (Navarra)
Ch. vernalis cantabrica: N Spain (Asturias, Cantabria)

So C. vernalis italica is synonimus?

_________________
Roberto Vanzini

"So C. vernalis italica is synonimus?"

Yes in this book by Bienkowski is note "Chrysomela vernalis var. italica Weise, 1882: 365 (type locality not indicated originally, syntypes examined) syn. nov. [com. 210]"

[com. 210]:

Subspecies Ch. vernalis muchei is described from the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria (Mohr,
1969). A number of the type specimens was not indicated. The only difference from other
subspecies, mentioned in the original description, is the arcuate lateral sides of pronotum. There are
three specimens of Ch. vernalis from Bulgaria, including one from the Black Sea coast (environs of
Bourgas city, 26 km SW from the type locality of subsp. muchei) at my disposal. All of them have
pronotal lateral sides straight or rounded only at the apex and nothing differ from Ch. vernalis s.str.
On the other hand, there are a few specimens with rounded pronotal sides from different places of
the species range (see fig. 25). Thus, it can be concluded that rounded pronotal sides are individual
variability, and muchei is a new junior synonym of Ch. vernalis s.str.

Taxon herii was originally described as a separate species (Herrich-Schaeffer, 1839). It was
later considered as a subspecies: Ch. vernalis herii. The original description of Chrysomela Herii
does not contain the information on the type locality (Herrich-Schaeffer, 1839), but it contains
indication (ICZN, 1999, 12.2.1) that this species was mentioned earlier in the Dejan's catalog as a
variation of Ch. bicolor. In fact, Chevrolat in Dejean (1833, p. 400) writes: "Chrysomela bicolor
Var. Herii. Sturm. Corfou." The name Herii by Chevrolat in Dejean (1833) is a nomen nudum, but
the indication of a type locality should be taken from this work . No materials from G. Herrich-
Schaeffer collection were studied by recent authors. The type of herii should be considered as lost.
I designate a neotype of herii to establish the taxonomic position of this taxon. It is a male with the
label "Balkan, Corfu, Paganetti, 1903" (MTD). It corresponds to the characters of the species Ch.
vernalis, with antennomeres 1 and 2 rufous below, elytra golden green, shining, covered by rather
large punctures (size of punctures is 4 or 5, see Fig. 25), pronotal lateral sides straight, pronotal lateral impression furrow-shaped, distinct in basal ½, and shallow, but distinct in apical ½, bodylength 10.4 mm, width 6.5 mm, aedeagus as in Ovosoma fig. 12 in the chapter "Review of subgenera". I consider herii to be a separate subspecies (see above).

The taxon italica was originally described as a variation of Ch. vernalis very briefly (Weise,
1882). All original characters are included in fig. 24. The type locality was not originally indicated.
Weise (1916) considered italica to be an aberration, but supplied with the region of habitat:
"Italien". Bechyné (1950a) noted Italy, Tyrol and S France for the subspecies Ch. vernalis italica. I
examined the syntypes of italica and large series of Ch. vernalis from Italy. I did not find any
differences of italica from the nominotypical subspecies.

The original characters of the subspecies Ch. vernalis ottomana Bechyné, 1950a are included
in fig. 24. I examined the specimens from Turkey including those from the type locality
("Constantinopel"). I did not find any differences of ottomana from the nominotypical subspecies.