Acanthidiellum Kirkaldy, 1904

Acanthidiellum Kirkaldy, 1904

Acanthidies: Montrouzier (1855: 95). Unavailable due to being a French plural vernacular name ( ICZN 1999: Art 11.8).

Acanthidium Montrouzier, 1858: 251–253 View in CoL . Type species: Acanthidium punctatissimum Montrouzier, 1858 by subsequent designation (Rider 1998: 507). Junior homonym of Acanthidium Lowe, 1839 View in CoL (Chondrichthyes).

Polycarmes Stål, 1868: 509 . Type species: Acanthidium punctatissimum Montrouzier, 1858 , by original designation. Junior homonym of Polycarmes Gistel, 1834 ( Coleoptera View in CoL : Scarabaeidae View in CoL ).

Acanthidiellum Kirkaldy, 1904: 280 as a new replacement name for Acanthidium Montrouzier, 1858 View in CoL .

Montrouzier (1855) introduced the name Acanthidies in a French text: ‘Comme il est probable que le nombre des espèces nouvelles ira en augmentant, à mesure qu’on fera de nouvelles recherches, et que, pour simplifier la classification et aider la mémoire, il faudra créer de nouvelles coupes, j’ai divisé les Pentatomes en deux sousgenres: celles qui n’ont pas d’épines aux côtés du corselet sont les Pentatomes propres; celles dont le corselet est muni d’épines sur les côtés sont les Acanthidies. Celles-ci se subdivisent en trois sections, selon que les épines sont droites on dirigées en avant, on recourbées en arrière. [= As it is likely that the number of new species will increase as new research is carried out, and that, to simplify the classification and aid memory, it will be necessary to create new sections, I have divided the Pentatomes into two sub-genera: those which do not have spines on the sides of the pronotum are the Pentatomes proper; those whose pronotum is provided with spines on the sides are the Acanthidies. These are subdivided into three sections, according to whether the spines are straight, pointing forward, or curved backward.]’. He described eight new species and one new variety in Pentatoma Olivier, 1789 , but he did not assign any of these taxa to subgenera. Rider (1998) accepted Acanthidies as an available name (an original incorrect spelling of Acanthidium Montrouzier, 1858 View in CoL ), and considered the latter as a justified emendation. The name Acanthidies satisfies most of the requirements to be available as stated in the International Code on Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN 1999: Articles 11 and 12) except Article 11.8, being a French vernacular form of the Greek name used in plural (the exception from the rule, Art. 11.8.1, does not apply as it concerns only texts written in Latin.) For this reason Acanthidies as proposed by Montrouzier (1855) is to be treated as unavailable, an opinion expressed already by Kirkaldy (1909: 195, footnote).

Montrouzier (1858) proposed the genus Acanthidium without any description, but with three originally included valid species, Acanthidium punctatissimum Montrouzier, 1858 , A. cinctum Montrouzier, 1858 and A. armigerum Montrouzier, 1858 , thus satisfying the requirement of the Code ( ICZN 1999:Art. 12.2.5). He also mentioned another species, Acanthidium foetidum , but because he did not provide a description, the name was unavailable. The name Acanthidium Montrouzier, 1858 is, however, a junior homonym of the lantern shark genus Acanthidium Lowe, 1839 (now a junior subjective synonym of Etmopterus Rafinesque, 1810 ).

Stål (1868) erected the genus Polycarmes and designated Acanthidium punctatissimum as its type species; he did not mention the genus Acanthidium at all so we do not know if he was aware of its homonymy.

Kirkaldy (1904) proposed Acanthidiellum as a new replacement name for ‘ Acanthidium, Montv., 1864 [sic!]’. Kirkaldy (1909) designated Acanthidium foetidum Signoret, 1861 as type species of Acanthidium Montrouzier, 1858 , and based on that designation he placed Acanthidium and Acanthidiellum in synonymy of Coctoteris Stål, 1858 . However, such a type species designation is invalid because Acanthidium foetidium was an unavailable name at the time of description of Acanthidium ( ICZN 1999, Art. 67.2). This error was pointed out by Rider (1998) who fixed Acanthidium punctatissimum as type species of Acanthidium and placed both Acanthidium and Acanthidiellum as synonyms of Polycarmes Stål, 1868 .

Bousquet & Bouchard (2017) listed the genus Polycarmes Gistel, 1834 (junior objective synonym of Anoxia Laporte, 1832 ; Coleoptera : Scarabaeidae ) as an available name, designated its type species and pointed out the necessity to replace its junior homonym, Polycarmes Stål, 1868 . Despite the large and charismatic Polycarmes punctatissimus being possibly the best known species of Pentatomidae in New Caledonia (e.g., Anonymus 2025), the generic name Polycarmes Stål was only rarely mentioned in the literature as we found only ten references published since its original description ( Stål 1868, Lethierry & Severin 1893, Distant 1899, 1914, 1920, Schouteden 1907, Kirkaldy 1909, Gross 1976, Rider 1998, Rider et al. 2018). In such a situation, the conservation of the name Polycarmes Stål is unnecessary and it is to be substituted with its only valid junior synonym, Acanthidiellum Kirkaldy, 1904 . The following two new combinations are required: