To be or not to be a synonym – revision of the Donacia clavareaui-fukiensis complex (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Donaciinae)

Abstract

The East Palaearctic species Donaciaclavareaui Jacobson, 1906 and Donaciafukiensis Goecke, 1944 have been confused for decades. Finally, D.fukiensis was synonymized with D.clavareaui by Askevold (1990) but he could not examine the type series of D.fukiensis because it was stored in an inaccessible collection. Cong and Yu (1997) re-established D.fukiensis as a distinct species, also without direct access to the type series. The synonymization by Askevold (1990) was applied in the identification key of Palaearctic Chrysomelidae (Warchalowski 2010) and the Catalogue of Palaearctic Chrysomelidae (Silfverberg 2010). Because the type series of D.fukiensis is now accessible, it has been possible to proof that D.fukiensis is a distinct species, and a lectotype has been established from the series of seven syntypes. Donaciakweilina Chen, 1966 and D.mediohirsuta Chen, 1966, which were split from the mixture of D.clavareaui and D.fukiensis, are now also synonymized with D.clavareaui, because their characters are the same or within the variation range of the characters of D.clavareaui. Furthermore, a distribution map is provided with the reliable records known to date.