Abstract
The genus Thorectes was described by Mulsant (1842) and two nominal species were included as valid, namely, the only one considered as a French species, Thorectes laevigatus (Fabricius, 1798) (originally in Scarabaeus), and in the observations to this species, Thorectes hemisphaericus (Olivier, 1789) [sub Thorectes haemisphericus, sic!] is also considered to belong to this genus and combined with it. This latter species is a primary homonym of Scarabaeus hemisphaericus Pallas, 1781. The former species had also 5 new varieties described (lineicollis, desjardinii, subgeminalis, subrugulosus, simplicidens), which can hardly be considered available subspecific names, since they had no different type localities and relate to small individual variations; they are not mentioned further in this note. Later authors have always treated this genus as having a single originally included species, which is wrong. From Mulsant’s text itself, it is clear that Thorectes laevigatus was a misidentified species, since Fabricius (1798) described his species stating “Habitat in Tangier. D. Schousboe. Mus. Dom. de Sehestedt”. The Fabrician species has been always correctly identified later (apparently, since we do not know of any author having studied its type material, Francois (1904) did not check these types himself) and its present distribution includes Morocco and Algeria (Baraud, 1985). Mulsant’s misidentified species is now considered to be a synonym of Jekelius (Jekelius) intermedius (O.G. Costa, 1839), described from Otranto (Italy) and distributed in Italy, Sicily, South France, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Is. (LopezColon, 1995). This synonymy originates in Bedel (1903), who was the first to recognise that Mulsant’s nominal species was misidentified. The other species mentioned by Mulsant, Thorectes hemisphaericus, is now considered to be
Highlights
From Mulsant’s text itself, it is clear that Thorectes laevigatus was a misidentified species, since Fabricius (1798) described his species stating “Habitat in Tangier
François (1904) considered T. laevigatus to be a valid species, different from T. marginatus, and he recognised as correct the statements made before by Bedel (1903) in relation to the identity and nomenclature of T. laevigatus sensu Mulsant
Previous designations or mentions of type species for Thorectes have failed to recognise both facts: that there were two original species, so that any type species designation must be considered a subsequent designation, and that the species usually mentioned as the type of the genus, namely, Scarabaeus laevigatus, was misidentified by Mulsant
Summary
From Mulsant’s text itself, it is clear that Thorectes laevigatus was a misidentified species, since Fabricius (1798) described his species stating “Habitat in Tangier. Mulsant’s misidentified species is considered to be a synonym of Jekelius (Jekelius) intermedius (O.G. Costa, 1839), described from Otranto (Italy) and distributed in Italy, Sicily, South France, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Is.
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