ON THE IDENTITY OF THE GENUS LECANOPSIS TARGIONI TOZZETTI

Abstract

ON THE IDENTITY OF THE GENUS LECANOPSIS TARGIONI TOZZETTI

The genus Lecanopsis Targioni Tozzetti was generally accepted by coccidologists until 1994. In that year, on the basis that the exact facies of the genus was not known and that there was no type material, it was proposed that all the species previously included in Lecanopsis be transferred to the genus Paralecanopsis (synonymised with Lecanopsis in 1980) and that only the type species, L. rhyzophila Targioni Tozzetti, be retained in Lecanopsis, thus allowing a proper diagnosis of this group. In order to clarify the identity of the genus Lecanopsis, we have carefully checked the original descriptions of the genus and of its type species by Targioni Tozzetti and by Signoret. This work has highlighted some small mistakes in the translation of the original description from Italian or Latin to French and also some omissions, and these could have led to the conclusion that the real facies of this genus was not known and that the type species, L. rhyzophila, could not be congeneric with the other species currently included in Lecanopsis. However, some original drawings of Lecanopsis by Targioni Tozzetti, which he sent to Signoret in 1872, have been discovered in the Museum Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. On the basis of this new information, and with the support of the authoritative opinion of two members of the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature, we consider that (i) the genus Lecanopsis is a valid genus and propose (ii) that the species of Lecanopsis recently transferred to the genus Paralecanopsis Bodenheimer be re-assigned to the genus Lecanopsis Targioni Tozzetti.

Key words: host plants, Asperula, Rhizobium, Rhyzobium, Agropyrum, Aclerda subterranea, Paralecanopsis turcica, Lecanopsis formicarum, history, illustrations, behaviour.