Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 112 1960 Number 3433 



FIREFLIES OF THE GENUS PYRACTONEMA 

 (COLEOPTERA: LAMPYRIDAE) 



By Frank A. McDermott 



Introduction 



Solier (1849) described nine new species of Lampyridae from Chile 

 and placed them in a new genus, Pyractonema. Fairmaire and 

 Germain (1862) described as Lucidota three new species that were 

 subsequently removed to Pyractonema, and Gemminger and Harold 

 (1869) changed the specific trivial name of Solier 's P. compressi- 

 cornis to depressicornis, the former being preoccupied in Lucidota. 

 The first species referred to in the literature belonging in this genus 

 is P. obscura (G. A. Olivier, 1790) from Tierra del Fuego. To this 

 species E. Olivier (1907, 1910) referred four of Solier's species and 

 also two others; P. bardelli (le Guillou, 1844) and P. bioculata 

 (Blanchard, 1853.) He also referred Solier's P. rhododera to this 

 species, but rhododera is herein reestablished as a valid species. 

 Since E. Olivier (1907, p. 6) had access to the collections of his grand- 

 father, G. A. Olivier, and of Fairmaire (although he remarks, p. 62, 

 that the latter is in "inextricable disorder"), it must be assumed that 

 he made the comparisons necessary to convince him of this synonymy. 

 Thus, of the 15 described species, E. Olivier (1907, 1910) recognized 

 only 9. No other species definitely referrable to this genus appears 

 to have been described since those of Fairmaire and Germain. 

 E. Olivier (1902) described three Japanese species but subsequently 

 transferred them to Lucidina. 



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