Cleptidea xanthomelas (Mocsáry, 1889)

Cleptes xanthomelas Mocsáry, 1889: 36. Lectotype ♀ designated by Kimsey 1981 [not 1986b]: 806; Brazil: Blumenau (MNHN, examined). Kimsey & Bohart (1991); Lucena et al. (2024: 57)

Cleptidea xanthomelaena: Mocsáry, 1904: 569. Unjustified emendation of Cleptes xanthomelas Mocsáry, 1889.

Mocsáry (1904) unjustifiably emended the name Cleptes xanthomelas Mocsáry, 1889 to Cleptidea xanthomelaena, presumably to change the ending from masculine to feminine, in his list of species included in his new genus Cleptidea (see above). The emendation was demonstrably intentional since both the original and the changed spelling are cited and the latter is adopted in place of the former (Code Art. 33.2.1). This emendation has remained unnoticed by subsequent authors. However, according to Code Art. 31.2.3 the name xanthomelas remains unchanged as it is not a Latin or latinized word, merely being a simple transliteration of the Greek, and its final component is actually listed in the examples of such words: “Species-group names such as melas, melaina, melan; polychloros, polychloron; celebrachys; nakpo from the Tibetan word meaning black, remain unchanged when transferred from combination with a generic name of one gender to combination with one of another gender. But melaena is a latinized adjective derived from the Greek melaina, and must be changed when so transferred, with an appropriate Latin gender ending (- us masculine, - um neuter)”. The emendation has apparently not been adopted as valid since its proposal, and Cleptidea xanthomelaena (Mocsáry, 1904) remains an objective junior synonym of Cleptidea xanthomelas (Mocsáry, 1899).