The Apionidae (Coleoptera) of the Canary Islands, with particular reference to the contribution of T. Vernon Wollaston

Abstract: The contribution of T. V. Wollaston to knowledge of the Canarian Apionidae is outlined in relation to subsequent work. An account is given of the material in his collections at The Natural History Museum, London (BMNH), and in the Hope Entomological Collections of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH). Keys to the genera and the 23 taxa (species and subspecies) currently known from the Canary Islands are provided. Notes on each taxon giving taxonomic, ecological, distributional and other information, together with new records, are included. Lepidapion canariense (Wagner, 1914), syn. nov., is here synonymised with L. senex (Wollaston, 1864) and a lectotype of the latter selected and labelled. The synonymy of Catapion ceuthorhynchoides (Wollaston, 1864) with C. pubescens (Kirby, 1811), originally proposed by Dieckmann (1989), is confirmed. Holotrichapion (Nesiapion) rotundipenne (Wollaston, 1854), stat. restit., is removed from synonymy with Hemitrichapion (Lotapion) wollastoni (Chevrolat, 1852), and a lectotypes are designated for both species.

Key words: Apionidae, Wollaston, taxonomy, synonymy, lectotype, Canary Islands