Studies on neotropical Protoneuridae, 13: the types of Neoneura rufithorax Selys (Zygoptera)

In his classical revision of the genus Neoneura, E.B. WILLIAMSON (1917, Trans. Am. ent. Soc. 43: 211-246, pis 9-19 excl.) used drawings of the types in the Selys' collection, as made by A. Menger. He mentioned that Menger could not draw N. rufithorax and pointed out that since the work of Selys was completed, the Neoneura specimens in his collection had been greatly damaged, therefore only a limited number could be figured. This raised the possibility that the types of N. rufithorax no longer existed or had lost critical parts. While studying the Protoneuridae types in the Selys’ collection, I have noticed that the Selysian types of Neoneura are stored in Box 27 and they are ordered in the same sequence in which the species appear in E.M. SELYS-LONGCHAMPS (1886, Mem. Acad. r. Belg. 38: IV+283 pp). The only exception is that after N. sylvatica, instead of N. mfithorax, there is a species labelled Neoneura parvula, represented by two 3 3, one complete, the other lacking segments 8-10. This led me to think that they could be the types of N. mfithorax. The pin-labels in the undamaged specimen are: (1) “S. Paulo” (handwritten in ink; green label), — (2) “i Neoneura parvula Selys” (handwritten in ink; white label), — (3) “Coll. Selys” (handwritten in ink, with No. 93 in red pencil; white label), — (4) “Dessine Williamson” (handwritten in ink; white label), — (5) “Dessine par Santos — 5-X-64” (handwritten in ink; white label). The same handwriting, presumably that of Selys, appears in labels 2 and 3. The damaged specimen has only one label: “S. Paulo” (handwritten in ink, green label). The following facts corroborate my view that these specimens are the types of N. rufithorax: (1) they agree well with the original description of rufithorax made by SELYS (1886, l.c.), – (2) the data on the locality labels are in good agreement with those given in the Selysian description of N. rufithorax, where one reads “Patrie: S. Paulo (Haut-Amazonej. Coll. Selys”, — (3) the species-group name. parvula, appears five times in C.A. BRIDGES (1994, Catalogue of the family-group, genus-group and species-group names of the Odonata of the world, Bridges, Urbana, 3rd edn), but none of them applies to a Protoneuridae, — (4) commenting on N. rufithorax, SELYS (1886, l.c.) mentioned that it is: “La plus petite des especes connue”, a statement that is coherent with the name parvula (from the Latin parvulus, -a, -um = very small). Most probably Selys first named and labelled the species as parvula, an allusion to its small size. In the publication he changed the name to rufithorax, but failed to amend the label. The undamaged specimen is now designated and labelled as lectotype. The damaged specimen became the paralectotype. In both I added the label “Neoneura rufithorax Selys, 1886”. As indicated in the labels attached to the lectotype, drawings have been made of it by E.B. Williamson and N.D. Santos, but they have never been published, either under the name parvula or rufithorax.