Megalodontes merceti Konow, 1904

A valid species, Megalodontes merceti Konow, 1904 .

Types. Megalodontes merceti Konow, 1904: 226–227 . Syntypes ♂ ♀ “Hispania (Escorial, Vaciamadrid)” . Lectotype ♀ hereby designated (SDEI, Fig. 27, see also http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.918597). Type locality: Spain: Madrid: El Escorial. (“Escorial”) . Paralectotypes: 1♂ “Escorial” (http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.760595, SDEI); 1 ♀ “Vaciamadrid” (SDEI); 1 ♂, 1 ♀ “Escorial” (HNHM, http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.761192), 1 ♂ 1 ♀ “Escorial” (NHMW), 2 ♂ “Escorial” (MNCN _Ent 81523 and 81524, MNCN Cat. Tipos 9981), 1 ♀ “Escorial” (http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.760466, MNCN _Ent 81525, MNCN Cat. Tipos 9981) .

Discussion. A female was selected as lectotype, which was labeled as lectotype (but designation not published) by previous workers. Most likely, further potential paralectotype specimens may be found in other museums. Obviously Dusmet sent many specimens in exchange to other museums. It is not clear, if all these specimens really were examined by Konow, but there is no evidence to exclude specimens collected before 1904 (or without collecting date), if they were collected by Mercet in Escorial or Vaciamadrid. The species seems to be restricted to the area around Madrid, none of the examined 160 specimens was found more distant than 100 km from Madrid. All examined material was collected between 1900 and 1946 (but nearly 100 specimens without date), later (22.06.2008) only one ♀ has been photographed in Rivas-Vaciamadrid on flowers of Thapsia (?), see http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.761200.