EXPERIMENT AND LITERATURE

As I have continued to consider various ways to expand the Checklist (link) and offer more of the World Catalogue (link) data to colleagues and buprestid researchers, while preserving the commercial rights to the publisher of the printed world catalogue (link), one option is to present links to separate PDF copies for each higher taxon and genus-group taxon. I have prepared examples of this option which are available for examination on the Checklist (link) page with the entire Schizopodidae (link) and Fossils (link) now available.

Several requests for literature, partly prompted by the duplicate reprints I have offered (link), allowed me to locate a book dealer in Great Britain who offers a very impressive diversity of books and reprints on Buprestidae, including volumes from the Antonio Cobos library. If you’re trying to locate an original copy of a particular piece of  for your library, visit the website of Hillside Books on their page of buprestid literature (link).

BUPRESTID TYPES IN MEXICO CITY

Thank to Ilja Trojan’s website, I have just discovered a link to a relatively new type specimen database for the Coleccion Nacional de Insectos, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, México City, México (CNIN = UNAM), with images of both specimens and labels in the style of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University type specimen database (link). The CNIN database can be searched via genus- or species-group name. I have begun to link the images for specific types to the World Checklist (link).

JANUARY NEWS

The World of Jewel Beetles (WJB) face-lift is complete with an index added to allow users to find links to various topics and themes without having to search through the pages categorized from the expanded contents. A new version of the PDF Bibliography is given and includes publications added since November 2009. Hans Mühle and I have decided to eliminate the waste of his time in archiving ‘new’ publications in BUPRESTIS and will collaborate to keep a running annual list of publications (here). It is my hope that the Jewel Beetle News will develop into a more widely used venue to communicate within the buprestid community and perhaps generate, or evolve into, a truly digital organ of dialogue, or at least an electronic newsletter equivalent to the widely circulated SCARABS newsletter (hosted both by The Coleopterists Society (here) and the Team Scarab website (here).

As there continue to be more and more digital resources that we can use in the absence of having a great personal library or access to a large institutional library, I will add to the list as I learn about additional on-line resources. And I have pulled out some of the more important historical references that deal with Buprestidae, partly or  in total (here). It is interesting to note that while the entire Biologia Centrali-Americana is available on-line, so far the same cannot be said, or found, for Genera Insectorum. There are, however, electronic plates for the Kerremans volume (1902-1903). Recently, with the significant assistance of Tom Manos, a technician who works in entomology lab in Sacramento where I work, most of the plates for the Kerremans’ Monographie des Buprestides (1904-1914) have been posted on-line and the full text is available via the Biodiversity Heritage Library. And although the text of the Monographie of Laporte & Gory (1835-1841) is not available, or at least undiscovered by me, Tom and I are putting the plates on-line in the arrangement of genera presented by those authors. As more important historical literature becomes available, I suggest that those interested visit the Biodiversity Heritage Library website and explore the wealth of literature already available. It takes a little practice and knowing how to search effectively, but you will be surprised what you can find if you search against an author name or a genus-group name, for instance.

I again recommend the WJB Extant Colleagues page as a source for information on many of our colleagues including photographs, links to respective websites, email addresses, lists of publications and more importantly links to publication lists with PDF copies of some/all of their papers. I recently, again with the assistance of Tom Manos, added PDFs of nearly all of my publications excluding those with copyright restrictions (e.g. Zootaxa) and larger volumes still available from their respective publishers. I note that PDFs of some/all publications are available for our colleagues Hawkeswood, Jendek, MacRae, Volkovitsh and I recently added PDFs for some earlier papers by Neef de Sainval and Nylander. I have started another page to list PDFs for miscellaneous modern authors who are not otherwise buprestid researchers (here).

To complete this post, may I again request and remind all of you that Hans and I can only list the new publications that we know about. He and I both receive reprints, or PDFs, of a number of papers each year. I have access to both the printed and on-line versions of the Zoological Record. And yet we can never be certain that we’ve found everything. If any of you know of a paper that we do not list, or know of a colleague who is not listed as Extant, or have a website, or list of publications with or without PDF copies and links, please let me know directly.  I have two email accounts, one at work (email) and one in my home office (email) where I manage the WJB website and Jewel Beetle News; please use either one, although should you have questions about the beetles or the literature, both my collection and library are in my work office and answers can come more quickly if you contact me there.

REVISION OF STERASPIS

Not since Kerremans’ Monographie des Buprestides (1904-1914) has there been a key to the African genus Sterapis. Now the anticipated revision by Curletti (2009) has just been published with a modern classification including a new subgenus (Pissteras, type species: Buprestis brevicornis Klug 1835), a key to the species (English), and a number of lectotype and neotype designations. You can view or download a PDF copy of this monograph (link). Congratulations to Gian Curletti for this seminal contribution.

THE WORLD OF JEWEL BEETLES WEBSITE FACELIFT

The website The World of Jewel Beetles (link) has been undergoing a facelift which is now nearly complete. It is now easier to navigate and hopefully has more information for interested users and colleagues.

There is a new list of available duplicate reprints (link) including at least single copies of more than 75 papers. These are available to any interested colleague trying to build a research library.

WORLD CHECKLIST IMAGE LINKS

As reported earlier, I have begun to post links between certain taxa and images (link) of types or other authoritatively determined vouchers. Some of the links are with institutions that have begun the process of imaging their type collections. Other images are from my slides taken over the years in various natural history museums. Earlier I had posted these in groups by the collection where they reside, but now I am also providing links within the World Checklist. Many genera are without any images, but a surprising number, which I had forgotten, actually have at least one image. Since I continue to make progress along with Amanda Evans on a project to create a Lucid key to all buprestid genera, we will certainly hope to have images for all, or nearly all, genera that can also be viewed from the World Checklist site.

If you have images of any buprestid types that you may be willing to share with our friends and colleagues, I am happy to optimize those for the web and serve them via the World Checklist.

CATALOGUE AND WORLD CHECKLIST UPDATE

Over the last few weeks, and continuing now, I’ve been modifying both the slowly developing electronic version of the World Catalogue and the on-line World Checklist to continually reflect changes to the structure and classification as new works are published and received for inclusion. The large volume on Chrysochroina by Roman Hołyński (2009) (link to source) is proving to be a very interesting read. While there are many proposed changes to the structure of the genus-groups within that tribe that can, and probably should be debated, I also find that the proposals about super-species (Roman’s ‘circles’), species, and subspecies present a more traditional geographically-based platform. I encourage interested students of Buprestidae to add a copy of Roman’s volume to either their libraries or their wish-lists.

While Roman proposes the collapse of a number of genus-group names, which are and have been held at the genus-rank, to subgenera of Chrysochroa, Metataenia, Philocteanus, Steraspis, etc., I have not made these changes yet. Such a radical clearing of the ‘current’ classification, I think, could destabilize the more general consensus that has evolved into the current scheme. If we are to shift in the philosophy of what defines a buprestid genus, then we should move there en masse and not leave other genus-rich groups (e.g. Buprestini, Agrilini, Coraebini) as widely split as they may appear, and more so, now.

Take a look at Agelia, Asamia, Asemochrysis (= Mrazia syn. nov.), Catoxantha, Chrysaspis, Chrysochroa, Demochroa, Epidelus (= Epidelomorphus syn. nov.), Evides, Megaloxantha, Pygichaeta, Scaptelytra and Steraspis (we await G. Curletti’s revision of Steraspis).

Significant changes in the species/subspecies structure of the following genera are noted: Chrysochroa, Demochroa, Megaloxantha and Metataenia.

New genus-group taxa: Agelia (Afrelia), Asamia (Marysienka), Bojasinskia, Evides (Eviditaenia), Metatenia (Caledoenia), M. (Enigma), M. (Marginicupta) and Paracupta (Gibbicupta).

The subgenera Leptomroczkowskia and Platymroczkowskia are moved from Iridotaenia to Scaptelytra… and it continues as I turn the pages… and then I reach Metataenia next… with 11 subgenera including the reductions to subgenus rank of Cyphogastrella, Parachrysodema and Papuodema!

BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE

To help keep the buprestid community informed, I have added a new page (link) with a list of Cases and Opinions from the Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature involving Buprestidae. I have provided links to PDFs of some of these Cases and Opinions and I will try to add more as I acquire the PDF copy.

Unfortunately the recent cases have mostly been decided against our petitions.

Opinion 2214 did not conserve the names Curis and Cisseis, which means that those genera will be known as Selagis and Diphucrania, respectively.

Opinion 2228 did not conserve the name Dactylozodes, so that genus name must revert to Lasionota.

TYPE IMAGES

Over the last few weeks, I have been adding links to available type images from the databases of Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (link) (database) and the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Havard University, Cambridge, MA, USA (link) (type database).

These images are available via the World Checklist pages (link).

Imagine some day in the future when all type images are captured and available. If you know of any institution(s) that may have such a database developing, please send me the URL and I will connect the names in the checklist to the images.

GENERIC CLASSIFICATION UPDATE

As I continue to build both the electronic world catalogue and keep up-to-date with the world checklist (link), I will list changes to the generic classification as they appear.

1) In Roman Hołyński’s recent volume on the Chrysochroina (notice, pdf), two new genus-group name synonymies have been proposed:

Asemochrysus Deyrolle, 1864
(= Mrazia Obenberger, 1928), syn. nov.

Epidelus Deyrolle, 1864
(= Epidelomorphus Théry, 1925), syn. nov.

2) One new genus of Trigonogeniini from Belize has recently been described:

Cimrmanium Bílý, 2009
Type species: Cimrmanium angulinotum Bílý 2009

Bílý, S. 2009a. A new genus and species of the tribe Trigonogeniini Cobos, 1956, from Belize (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). Zootaxa 2108:65-68. (pdf of this paper available from the author)