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.

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.