TYPE DESIGNATIONS AND SYNONYMIES FOR 
NORTH AMERICAN SILPH IDAE (COLEOPTERA) 
By Stewart B. Peck 1 and Scott E. Miller 2 
The purpose of this paper is to provide type data and lectotype 
and neotype designations for North American Silphidae described 
by J. L. LeConte, Thomas Say, M. H. Hatch, and J. W. Angell, and 
new synonymies of other species. We are engaged in ongoing revi- 
sionary work on North American silphids (e.g. Miller and Peck, 
1979) and have found considerable nomenclatural confusion be- 
cause of varying interpretations of poor descriptions and names not 
fixed to types. Publication of these data is also necessary for their 
inclusion in the forthcoming fascicle on this family in “A Catalog 
of the Coleoptera of America North of Mexico”, U.S. Dept. Agric. 
Handbook 529 (J. M. Kingsolver, editor-in-chief). Improved identi- 
fication keys and characterizations of all United States and Cana- 
dian silphids are given in Peck (1982a). 
In the LeConte and Horn collections of the Museum of Compara- 
tive Zoology (MCZ), Harvard University, the specimens that bear 
“type” labels have not been formally validated, and these were 
placed on the assumed types (supposedly the first in each series) 
during routine curation early in this century. The Say neotypes were 
selected from the LeConte collection because it is generally agreed 
that the original Say material is lost, and that LeConte had the 
opportunity to compare his specimens with those in Say’s collection 
(see Lindroth and Freitag, 1969; Miller and Peck, 1979). The speci- 
mens designated do not differ in characters from the original pub- 
lished descriptions. 
Primary types from the Hatch collection have been deposited by 
Oregon State University in the United States National Museum of 
Natural History (USNM). 
Types have recently been designated for Silpha aenescens Casey, 
Silpha raniosa Say, Agvrtes longulus LeConte, and Necrophilus 
pettitii Horn (Miller and Peck, 1979; Peck, 1974 and 1982b). 
'Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6. 
2 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 
02138. 
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