I note that in the Titan database and in Larry's Cerambycidae Catalog Prosopocera (Paralphitopola) sofala Distant, 1898 is given as a junior synonym of Parahyagnis ficivorus (Pascoe, 1864). I cannot find where this synonym was proposed.... Sudre et al 2018 does propose the syn of Prosopocera (Paralphitopola) sofala Distant m. flavoconfluens Breuning, 1977 with Parahyagnis ficivorus a synonymy that may have been understood to include P. (Paralphitopola) sofala. But sofala has a scar on the apex of the scape and thus can not belong to the genus Parahyagnis.
Very tricky topic indeed! I have tried to understand this, but I am not sure if I got it right: The genus Parahyagnis was created by Breuning in 1939 with P. auratoides as its type species. In 1990 Pierre Teocchi synonymized P. auratoides with Chariesthes (Peritragopsis) ficivora (Pascoe 1864). Pascoe's original description of this taxon was as an Alphitopola and the recombination carried out by Teocchi in 1987. However, if the type species of a genus (Parahyagnis in this case)is transferred to another genus (Chariesthes) then in my understanding Parahyagnis ends up as a nomen nudum. Continued use of the name Parahyagnis can only be if Teocchi's synonymization is regarded invalid. And this seems is what happened through Tavakilian's paper 'New nomenclatural changes for 2015' (Cah. Magellanes NS 20) where he stated Teocchi's Chariesthes (Peritragopsis) to be a synonym of Parahyagnis.
Just to show how variable Parahyagnis ficivorus is I attach a photo of my four ex classified as such. They all at least share the major criterion of Teocchi in creating the subgenus Paralphitopola in having 12-segmented antennas. But are they all conspecific?
Mistakenly inferred synonym?
Posted - 21/11/2022 : 18:24:06
