Abstract
Ambrosia beetles of the (Eichhoff, 1868) species complex are emerging tree pests, responsible for significant damage to orchards and ecosystems around the world. The species complex comprises seven described species, all of which are nearly identical. Given that the morphology-defined species boundaries have been ambiguous, historically, there has been much disagreement on species validity, which was compounded by the presumed loss of the type series of . The species complex was recently reviewed using morphometrics to associate the type specimens to the clades delineated with molecular data under the assumption of the lost type series. We rediscovered a syntype of , and reevaluated the species in the complex using morphometrics. We propose the following taxonomic changes to the species complex: (= (Schedl, 1951); = (Schedl, 1942)) ); (Eggers, 1923) (=. (Schedl, 1951) ); (Gomez and Hulcr, 2018) and (Schedl, 1951) . These taxonomic changes shift the species name associated with the widely used common names for two taxa, namely: should be used for the "Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer", and for the "Tea Shot Hole Borer clade a". A lectotype is designated for in order to stabilize the use of the name.
Citation
ID:
16350
Ref Key:
m-smith2019reassessmentinsects