ZOOTAXA

ZOOTAXA65Lectotype data for Nicrophorus interruptus var. algiricus Pasquet, 1916: 154 "M.algiricus Pasquet"/ red label: "TYPE" / Edough., (coll. A. Lamay) / red rectangular labelwith double black border “LECTOTYPE Nicrophorus algiricus (Pasquet 1916) det. Sikes1997” - male (Paris [MNHN]); pronotal width: 5.62 mm.Paralectotype data “v. algiricus co-type / red label: "TYPE" Edough., (coll. L. Bedel.)– female; v. algiricus Pasq. Type algiricus Pasq. [Madge's handwriting] red label: "TYPE"/ [ALGERIA]: Kabylie Tizi-Ouzou, elev. 182 m, [36.72° ' N, 4.05° ' E,] - / red rectangularlabel with double black border “PARALECTOTYPE Nicrophorus algiricus (Pasquet1916) det. Sikes 1997”male (Paris [MNHN]).As discussed above (see N. germanicus) regarding the names proposed by Gistel(1848, 1857), usually treated as nomina dubia, we herein synonymyze N. basalis Gistel,1848 [not Faldermann 1835] under N. interruptus Stephens.As can be seen above, the species N. interruptus has been consistently referred to bytwo names throughout its taxonomic history: N. fossor Erichson, 1837 and N. interruptusStephens, 1830, with N. fossor being considered the valid name more often than thereverse. Part of the confusion was certainly due to Portevin (1926a) erroneously listing N.interruptus Brullé (= N. vestigator Herschel) with the wrong date (1822 rather than 1832)which, if he had been correct, would have made N. interruptus Stephens 1830 a primaryjunior homonym. It is clear that Portevin (1926a) had not thought the year 1822 correctfor N. interruptus Brullé because in the same work he treated N. interruptus Brullé as asynonym of its replacement name N. Brullei Jakobson (1910). Furthering the confusion,Hatch (1928) missed Portevin's error and copied it in his world catalog reversing the N.interruptus Brullé / N. Brullei Jakobson synonymy of Portevin (indicating he thought thatthe replacement name of Jakobson's was unnecessary because Brullé's name would not bea junior primary homonym based on the erroneous date of 1822). However, Portevin wasincorrect (we have seen the original Brullé [1832] and confirmed the date) and despite theuse of N. fossor as valid in dozens of publications, even as recently as Nishikawa (2001)and Nikolajev & Kozminykh (2002), N. interruptus Stephens is neither a forgotten name,nor a junior homonym, and is the older, and therefore the valid, name of this species.The name N. gallicus Jacquelin du Val has been considered subordinate to N. fossorfor most of its history. Because we are herein making N. fossor a junior synonym of N.interruptus, the name N. gallicus must now be considered a synonym of N. interruptus.The name N. corsicus Laporte has been considered a subspecies of N. interruptus (N.fossor) for most of its recent history and was applied to a population of N. interruptus withgreatly reduced elytral maculations on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. Although allopatricand apparently diagnosable from the mainland population, and thus perhaps deservingof subspecific status, DSS has seen specimens from mainland Europe (e.g. labelledfrom Austria in the Vienna collection) with the same elytral pattern. We recommend that itbe considered the allopatric island populations of N. interruptus because the elytral patternis apparently not restricted to only those islands.92 © 2002 Magnolia PressSIKES ET AL.