ON THE CORRECT DETERMINATION OF THE SPECIES OF PAROPSIS(EUMILPIDAE : COLEOPTERA)FOUND IN NEW ZEALAND

Abstract

Paropsis beetles were first found in New Zealand in 1916 near Canterbury on Eucalyptus globulus. This species was identified in New Zealand as P. dilatata Erichson. Later specimens were sent for confirmation to the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology, London by Clark (1930) where P. dilatata Er. was confirmed as the correct determination. Recently during work on the group in conjunction with P. B. Carne of the C.S.I.R.O. Australia, I compared the series originally determined by the Rev. T. Blackburn and deposited in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), with the Erichson holotype in Berlin. They were not found to be conspecific. Unfortunately Blackburn did not see the type species of either Erichson or Stal and for specks described by these authors he relied on specimens determined by Chapuis or on the original descriptions. In a group containing difficulties as g reat a s are to be found in Paropsis this is a very unreliable procedure. Eventually it was found by coniparison with the type material, that all the specimens determined as P. dilatata in the British Museum including the specimens sent over by Clark and described by him in his work on the morphology and biology of the beetle (1930), were in fact specimens of P. charybdis Stal. Therefore, the species of Paropsis found commonly in New Zealand is P. charybdis Stal and not P. dilatata Er. This finding was confirmed by examination of fresh material collected in New Zealand and sent t o me by the D.S.I.R. New Zealand. This note forms part of larger study by Selman (1963).