Leiopleura carbonata, new combination

Brachys carbonata LeConte 1859:252.

Pachyschelus carbonatus (LeConte), Nicolay and Weiss 1920:139.

This name has been been in synonymy under Pachyschelus laevigatus since the review of Nicolay and Weiss (1920). At the urging of Stanley Wellso, I examined the type and found it to be a species of Leiopleura, vindicating LeConte’s initial judgement that it was distinct. This raises the problem of the specimen’s origin, because it has apparently never been recollected in the United States and the only other known U.S. Leiopleura is the Antillean L. otero (Fisher) which occurs in southern Florida (Nelson et al. 1981). It is possible—and at this point more likely—that the specimen is mislabeled and that it is Central or South American in origin, although it does not match Central American species known to me. Its inclusion in the fauna of the United States should be considered hypothetical.