Cyrtonota marginata

Cyrtonota marginata (Kirsch, 1883)

Mesomphalia marginata Kirsch, 1883: 207 (original description).

Pseudomesomphalia Kolbei Spaeth, 1907: 155 (original description), syn. nov.

Type localities. Mesomphalia marginata: ‘ Ecuador (Huamboya)’ [= canton in the Morona-Santiago Province]; Pseudomesomphalia kolbei: ‘ Ecuador: Baiza’ [= Baeza in Napo Province].

Type material examined. Pseudomesomphalia kolbei: HOLOTYPE: pinned, ‘ Baiza | (Ecuad.) R.Haensch. S. [w, p, s, bf] || 11 [w, hw, cb] || F. Spaeth det. [w, hw, cb] || Pseudo- | mesomphalia | Kolbei n. sp. | Spaeth [w, hw by Spaeth, s] ’ (ZMHB).

Additional material examined. ECUADOR: NAPO PROVINCE: Baeza, 3 spec., R. Haensch lgt. (ZMHB).

Remarks. SPAETH (1907) described Pseudomesomphalia kolbei based on a single specimen. There are three more specimens in ZMHB with identical locality labels but these do not belong to the type series as Spaeth explicitly mentioned only a single specimen. He placed it among species later transferred to Neomphalia (= Cyrtonota) and separated it mainly by unique colouration as it has black pronotum and brown elytra with suture and outer margin black. However, the colouration of pronotum varies from uniformly black to mostly brown. The form with mostly brown pronotum was described as Mesomphalia marginata Kirsch, 1883. This taxon was unknown to Spaeth until he studied the type and transferred it to Neomphalia (SPAETH 1919). I have not examined the type of M. marginata, but I studied specimens compared with the type by Spaeth, which also perfectly agree with the primary description. In my opinion Pseudomesomphalia kolbei and M. marginata are conspecific and represent colour morphs of a single species as other morphological characters are identical. Therefore I synonymize P. kolbei with Cyrtonota marginata.

Distribution. Colombia (BOROWIEC 2002) and Ecuador (KIRSCH 1883, SPAETH 1907, BOROWIEC 1996).