Timentes is a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Eumolpinae.[3] It contains only one species, Timentes camerunensis, from Cameroon and possibly Tanzania. It is closely related to Thysbina.

Timentes
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Chrysomelidae
Subfamily: Eumolpinae
Tribe: Euryopini
Genus: Timentes
Selman, 1965[1]
Species:
T. camerunensis
Binomial name
Timentes camerunensis
(Pic, 1953)
Synonyms[2]
  • Thysbina camerunensis Pic, 1953
  • Timentes flavipes Selman, 1965[1]

The genus was originally erected by Brian J. Selman for a single species, Timentes flavipes. According to Selman, the genus and species were originally named by Julius Weise at an unknown date (probably 1885–6), from material in the Jacoby collection found at the Natural History Museum, London. However, they were not described until 1965 by Selman himself, who preserved Weise's names for them. The holotype of T. flavipes has a label that gives its locality as "East Africa" without further indication, though it was thought by Selman to probably come from Tanganyika in Tanzania.[1]

In 2019, Stefano Zoia found that Timentes flavipes was a junior synonym of Thysbina camerunensis, a species described by Maurice Pic from Edéa, Cameroon in 1953, and moved the latter species to Timentes.[2]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c Selman, B. J. (1965). "A revision of the Nodini and a key to the genera of Eumolpidae of Africa (Coleoptera: Eumolpidae)" (PDF). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology. 16 (3): 141–174. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.21864.
  2. ^ a b Zoia, S. (2019). "Nomenclature changes in African Eumolpinae with reference to type specimens preserved in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)". Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. Nouvelle Série. 55 (1): 61–86. doi:10.1080/00379271.2018.1556119. S2CID 155689938.
  3. ^ "Timentes". African Eumolpinae site. Retrieved 12 July 2018.