Tesserodon variolosus Macleay, 1888

Tesserodon variolosus Macleay, 1888

Tessarodon variolosus Macleay, 1888 b : [897].

Name-bearing type: Female holotype by inferred monotypy in the Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia, on permanent loan from the now-defunct Macleay Museum, University of Sydney ( Matthews 1974; Britton & Stanbury 1982; Storey 1991; Cassis & Weir 1992). Type locality: Originally stated to be “King’s Sound and its vicinity”, on the northern coast of Western Australia, Australia ( Macleay 1888 b) and accepted as King Sound (modern spelling) by subsequent writers ( Matthews 1974; Britton & Stanbury 1982; Storey 1991; Cassis & Weir 1992), but see remarks.

Remarks: Matthews (1974), Britton & Stanbury (1982), Storey (1991), and Cassis & Weir (1992) all treated the sole specimen standing by the name Tessarodon variolosus in the Macleay collection as the holotype, inferring monotypy. While Macleay’s (1888 b) description does not necessarily imply the examination of a single specimen, neither does it preclude this possibility. As such, we do not challenge these authors’ interpretation. The precise locality where the holotype was collected is still dubious. Macleay (1888 a, b) did not provide the provenance for the vast majority of the almost 200 species he described in his paper individually, but stated in the title that they were from “King’s Sound and its vicinity”, and explained in the introduction that they had been collected by Walter Wilson Froggatt (1858–1937) during his 1887–1888 explorations of the region. King Sound is a gulf on the northern coast of Western Australia and represents one the few Western Australia records for T. variolosus . However, Monteith & Rossini (2017) have shown that Froggatt actually spent most of his time in the region farther inland than the shores of King Sound as “its vicinities” would imply, in the locality modernly called Windjana Gorge, about 120 km east of King Sound. According to Monteith & Rossini’s investigations, every Froggatt specimen labeled as “Barrier Range” (modern Napier Range, where Windjana Gorge is located) originates from Windjana Gorge. Unfortunately, the variolosus holotype’s labels have never been transcribed in the literature, and the CSIRO insect collection is currently inaccessible due to relocation, so we cannot confirm whether they state “Barrier Range” or something else. The question will remain open until the holotype can be re-accessed and its labels checked.

Distribution: The north of the Northern Territory and of Western Australia ( Matthews 1974; Storey 1991). The Atlas of Living Australia (2024) record from South Australia is most likely incorrect.