INSECTA MUNDI A Journal of World Insect Systematics 0561 Some corrections and remarks regarding the nomenclature of Neotropical Athyreini, Passalini, Phanaeini, Rutelini, Cyclocephalini, Dynastini and Oryctini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) Auke J. Hielkema Curitibastraat 46A, Beni’s Park Paramaribo, Suriname Date of Issue: June 30, 2017 CENTER FOR SYSTEMATIC ENTOMOLOGY, INC., Gainesville, FL Auke J. Hielkema Some corrections and remarks regarding the nomenclature of Neotropical Athyreini, Passalini, Phanaeini, Rutelini, Cyclocephalini, Dynastini and Oryctini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) Insecta Mundi 0561: 1–18 ZooBank Registered: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7DBA499B-965E-43A7-9BBE-A3B5A483C383 Published in 2017 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P. O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/ Insecta Mundi is a journal primarily devoted to insect systematics, but articles can be published on any non-marine arthropod. Topics considered for publication include systematics, taxonomy, nomenclature, checklists, faunal works, and natural history. Insecta Mundi will not consider works in the applied sciences (i.e. medical entomology, pest control research, etc.), and no longer publishes book reviews or editorials. Insecta Mundi publishes original research or discoveries in an inexpensive and timely manner, distributing them free via open access on the internet on the date of publication. Insecta Mundi is referenced or abstracted by several sources including the Zoological Record, CAB Ab- stracts, etc. Insecta Mundi is published irregularly throughout the year, with completed manuscripts assigned an individual number. Manuscripts must be peer reviewed prior to submission, after which they are reviewed by the editorial board to ensure quality. One author of each submitted manuscript must be a current member of the Center for Systematic Entomology. Chief Editor: David Plotkin, e-mail: [email protected] Assistant Editor: Paul E. Skelley, e-mail: [email protected] Head Layout Editor: Eugenio H. Nearns Editorial Board: J. H. Frank, M. J. Paulsen, Michael C. Thomas Review Editors: Listed on the Insecta Mundi webpage Manuscript Preparation Guidelines and Submission Requirements available on the Insecta Mundi web- page at: http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/insectamundi/ Printed copies (ISSN 0749-6737) annually deposited in libraries: CSIRO, Canberra, ACT, Australia Museu de Zoologia, São Paulo, Brazil Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada The Natural History Museum, London, UK Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii PAN, Warsaw, Poland National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Gainesville, FL, USA Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia Electronic copies (Online ISSN 1942-1354, CDROM ISSN 1942-1362) in PDF format: Printed CD or DVD mailed to all members at end of year. Archived digitally by Portico. Florida Virtual Campus: http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/insectamundi University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi/ Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-135240 Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Com- mons, Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/ Layout Editor for this article: Eugenio H. Nearns 0561: 1–18 2017 Some corrections and remarks regarding the nomenclature of Neotropical Athyreini, Passalini, Phanaeini, Rutelini, Cyclocephalini, Dynastini and Oryctini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) Auke J. Hielkema Curitibastraat 46A, Beni’s Park Paramaribo, Suriname [email protected] Abstract. A number of nomenclatural issues regarding Neotropical Scarabaeoidea are addressed. Athyreus soesilae Makhan, 2008 is synonymized with Neoathyreus (Neoathyreus) excavatus (Laporte, 1840) (Geotrupidae: Bolbocera- tinae: Athyreini). Scalmus Zang, 1905 is replaced with its senior synonym Neleuops Kuwert, 1891, nec Neleurops Kuwert, 1891, and the four species it presently contains are thus transferred to Neleuops (Passalidae: Passalinae: Passalini). The spelling of the name Oxysternon oberthueri Olsoufi eff, 1924, a junior synonym of Oxysternon (Oxy- sternon) conspicillatum (Weber, 1801), is fi xed (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Phanaeini). The year of description of Oxysternon (Oxysternon) festivum (Linnaeus, 1758) is corrected, its existing lectotype invalidated, and a new lectotype designated (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Phanaeini). The correct spelling of Phanaeus (Phanaeus) pra- sinus trinidadens Arnaud, 2001 and Phanaeus (Phanaeus) prasinus joliyi Arnaud, 2001 is discussed (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Phanaeini). The seniority of Chlorota aulica Burmeister, 1844 over Chlorota metallica Burmeister, 1844 is restored (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Rutelini). The year of description of Rutela lineola (Linnaeus, 1758) is corrected and a lectotype is designated (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Rutelini). Cyclocephala aulustjaorum nomen no- vum is proposed as a replacement name for the preoccupied name Cyclocephala brevis Höhne, 1923 (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini). The spelling of the generic name Harposceles Burmeister, 1847 is fi xed (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini). The incorrect subsequent spelling Stenocrates haackae Ratcliffe, 1977 is preserved (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini). The name Scarabaeus simson Linnaeus, 1767 is invalidated as a syn- onym of Megasoma actaeon (Linnaeus, 1758) (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Dynastini). The spelling of the generic name Coelosis Hope, 1837 is found to be correct (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Oryctini). The validity of Steyskal’s emendation of the name Megaceropsis quadridentata Dechambre, 1976 is confi rmed (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Oryctini). The lectotype of Podischnus agenor (Olivier, 1789) is invalidated and a new lectotype is designated (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Oryctini). Key Words. Lectotype, synonym, nomen novum, seniority, year of description, spelling, Geotrupidae, Passalidae, Scarabaeidae. Introduction While working with Meindert Hielkema on a checklist regarding the Scarabaeoidea of the Guianas, I found and resolved some nomenclatural issues. The fi rst of these was the true identity of the longtime nomen inquirendum Scarabaeus valgus Linnaeus, 1758, namely a senior synonym of Phanaeus vindex MacLeay, 1819. This information was shared with B. C. Ratcliffe to obtain expert confi rmation of my fi ndings. Before I could publish on the subject myself, it was published (uncredited) in Ratcliffe and Cave (2015: 265). In that publication, nomenclatural stability was preserved by suppressing Scarabaeus valgus Linnaeus, 1758 as a nomen oblitum and making its junior homonym, Scarabaeus valgus Olivier, 1789 (now Phileurus valgus), a nomen protectum by applying a reversal of precedence. The present paper addresses the remaining issues I have been able to resolve so far. For the forthcoming checklist mentioned above, Meindert Hielkema and I have checked all the original descriptions of relevant species and genera. Although such an approach on a project of this scale (with hundreds of often very old or obscure documents to be checked) was virtually impossible to execute only 25 years ago, the advent of the internet and PDF-format documents have made it feasible. It should perhaps come as no surprise that the careful comparisons of multiple papers, which deal with a single species over the course of sometimes hundreds of years, may yield errors in spelling, identifi ca- tion, nomenclatural priority etc. This holds especially true when, next to the often-problematic access to publications, it is also taken into consideration that scientifi c publications were written in various languages and with various typesets (like blackletter) with which researchers may have been unfamil- iar. In addition, very succinct descriptions and sometimes rather poor drawings by many of the early authors, limited availability to type specimens, printing errors, unfamiliarity with some of the articles 2 • INSECTA MUNDI 0561, June 2017 HIELKEMA of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), and other issues may have contributed to errors. Rather than addressing these issues in the aforementioned checklist, where they risk going unnoticed, I will treat them in the following chapters. For ease of reference, relevant page numbers from cited publications are included throughout. Materials and Methods After reviewing a large number of PDF-format publications, over 120 of these were found to contain relevant and useful information, and they are included in the Literature Cited. Most of the more recent publications were already in my possession due to my work on a checklist of the Guianan Scarabaeoi- dea. Additional volumes, especially some very old ones, were obtained through various websites. Most important in this perspective were the freely accessible Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), which is an international consortium of natural history and botanical libraries, and AnimalBase, which is a free service provided by the