Basing on the study of the type specimen of Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758 preserved in the Linnean Collection in London, and here designated as the lectotype, it was found that this name was misapplied to another close species of the genus Rhinoncus Schoenherr, 1825 starting from the Paykull 1792 misidentification. As a consequence, the following new synonymies are established: Rhinoncus pericarpius (Linnaeus, 1758) [= Curculio castor Fabricius, 1792, syn. n.; = Curculio interstitialis Reich, 1787, syn. n.; = Curculio scabratus Fabricius, 1792, syn. n.; = Curculio fruticulosus Herbst, 1795, syn. n.; = Curculio interstitialis Reich, 1797, syn. n.; = Rhynchaenus seniculus Gravenhorst, 1807, syn. n.; = Campylirhynchus quadricornis (Gyllenhal, 1813) sensu Dejean, 1821: 85 [misidentification] not Rhynchaenus quadricornis Gyllenhal, 1813, syn. n.; = Rhinoncus flavipes Stephens, 1831, syn. n.; = Rhinoncus rufipes Stephens, 1831, syn. n.; = Rhinoncus granulipennis Gyllenhal, 1837, syn. n.; = Rhinoncus pyrrhopus Boheman, 1845 sensu Hatch & Kincaid, 1958: 20 [misidentification] not Rhinoncus pyrrhopus Boheman, 1845, syn. n.]; and Rhinoncus leucostigma (Marsham, 1802) [ = Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758 sensu Paykull, 1792 [misidentification] not Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758, syn. n.; = Cryptorhis herbstii Billberg, 1820: 43 [replacement name for Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus sensu Paykull, 1792], syn. n.; = Rhinoncus spartii Stephens, 1831, syn. n.; = Rhinoncus sanguinipes Reitter, 1916, syn. n.; = Rhinoncus pericarpius ssp. montanus Hoffmann, 1960, syn. n.]. Lectotypes are designated for Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758 and Curculio leucostigma Marsham, 1802. A neotype is selected for Curculio interstitialis Reich, 1797.

Reading of the papers by Linnaeus (1746, 1758, 1761, 1767) drives one to the conclusion that the name Curculio pericarpius was referred almost since its description to different small weevils belonging to the present genera Rhinoncus Schoenherr, 1825 (Ceutorhynchinae Phytobiini) and Cionus Clairville, 1798 (Curculioninae Cionini).

Indeed, the first part of the Linnaeus (1746: 158) still not binomial description of this species: “totus e nigro et fusco medius, scaber, striatus, vellere cinereo raro adspersus, ad suturas elytrorum juxta thoracem in medio dorso macula alba, ex lineola in singulo elytro eodem loco alba, antennarum infimo articulo longus” is precisely that of the very specimen preserved today in the Linnean collection, whereas the second part of the 1746 description: “saepe ante maculam cordatam albam observatur punctum nigrum; saepe etiam versus caudam propius macula alba”, and the Linnaeus (1758: 380) sentence “Habitat in Scrophulariis cum sequente [Curculio scrophulariae, our note]” points to a species of Cionus.

Starting already from Geoffroy (1762: 298), the name of Curculio pericarpius was subsequently applied by several early authors to a long-nosed Cionus rather than to a relatively short-nosed Rhinoncus, with the notable exception of Paykull (1792: 62) who definitely described a true Rhinoncus under the name of Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus. Next in the same year Fabricius (1792) described his new species Curculio castor on page 408.

Curculio castor was later synonymized by Billberg (1820: 43) with C. pericarpius under the genus Cryptorhis Billberg, 1820, synonymy overlooked by all the following authors. This implies that the synonymy established by Colonnelli (2004: 13) between Cryptorhis herbstii Billberg, 1820 and Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758 is incorrect. As a consequence of his synonymy, Billberg gave the replacement name of Cryptorhis herbstii to the species until then wrongly named Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus already by Paykull (1792) and Fabricius (1792) and by all the following authors up to now.

Schoenherr (1825: col. 586) included both Curculio castor and C. pericarpius in Ceutorhynchus Germar, 1824 subgenus Rhinoncus Schoenherr, 1825, to which was then given full generic status by Stephens (1831: 3). Note that although Schoenherr (1825) selected Rhynchaenus quadrituberculatus, currently Pelenomus quadrituberculatus (Fabricius, 1787), as type species of Rhinoncus, the International Commission ruled in order to preserve stability (ICZN 1989) that Curculio pericarpius was to consider the type species of Rhinoncus Schoenherr, 1825, which name took then precedence over the senior unused Cryptorhis Billberg, 1820.

During a visit by the second author to the Linnean collection in London the single type specimen of Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758 was studied. It is a male in quite good a shape, pinned through right elytron, which is partly broken.

As can be seen from the figures 1 and 2 (Linnean Society 2014), the type of Curculio pericarpius belongs to the species which is presently named Rhinoncus castor (Fabricius, 1787) as a consequence of the misidentification by Paykull (1792) used up to now. We have no doubts about the specimen being one of the Linnean types, since it well matches the Linnaeus (1746) relatively long description to which the Linnaeus (1758) paper expressly made reference. Thus, also according to the art. 12.2.1 of the Code (ICZN 1999), we select this male as the lectotype of Curculio pericarpius by adding to the specimen a handwritten red label (semicolons indicate changes of line): “LECTOTYPUS ♂; Curculio; pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758; J. Huang & E. Colonnelli des. 2014” (Fig. 3), and our white identification label: “Rhinoncus; pericarpius (L., 1758); J. Huang & E. Colonnelli det., 2014” (Fig. 4). As a consequence, we resurrect the following synonymy established by Billberg (1820): Rhinoncus pericarpius (Linnaeus, 1758) [= Rhinoncus castor (Fabricius, 1792)]. The types of Rhinoncus castor (Fabricius) were studied by Colonnelli (1993), and the three of them are conspecific with the Linnean example.

At this point arises the question if any of the names older than Cryptorhis herbstii Billberg, 1820 may take precedence over it, becoming thus the valid one for the common Holarctic species currently wrongly denominated Rhinoncus pericarpius because of the 1792 misidentification by Paykull. Not considering unavailable names such as incorrect subsequent spellings and nomina nuda listed for the sake of completeness by Colonnelli (2004), they are: Curculio scabratus Fabricius, 1792, Curculio fruticulosus Herbst, 1795, Curculio interstitialis Reich, 1797, Curculio leucostigma Marsham, 1802, and Rhynchaenus seniculus Gravenhorst, 1807.

The Curculio scabratus types were studied by Colonnelli (1993), whilst the Rhynchaenus seniculus neotype was selected by Colonnelli (1998), and both names are now to be considered new synonyms of Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus.

Description (Herbst 1795) and figure (Herbst [1795]) of Curculio fruticulosus Herbst leave no doubt (Fig. 5) that also this name must be referred to Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, to which therefore it is here newly synonymized. There is no mention in all the following literature of any Reich collection (Horn & Kahle 1936, 1937; Horn et al. 1990), so the three types of Curculio interstitialis Reich, 1797, a species described and illustrated by Reich (1797), are surely to be considered lost. In consequence, according to art. 75 of the Code (ICZN 1999), there is the need to select a neotype of Curculio interstitialis for unequivocally assessing to which species this name must be referred, given that there are discrepancies between the description in which is stated that the elytral intervals are “carinato-muricatis” (Reich 1797: 2) and the figure where is depicted a weevil with rather smooth elytra (Fig. 6). Since the Reich species were all described from the surroundings of Nuremberg, we select a male well corresponding to the Reich (1797) description preserved in the Institut für Biologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg as the neotype of Curculio interstitialis, and labeled: “BY Erlangen; Geo Tag Regnitzgrund; 8.6.2007; leg. J. Schmidl” [white, printed], “Rhinoncus; castor (F.); vid. Dr. P. Sprick 2014” [white, partly printed] by adding a red handwritten label “NEOTYPUS ♂; Curculio; interstitialis Reiche, 1797; J. Huang & E. Colonnelli des. 2014” (Figs 7-11). As a result, we establish the following new synonymy: Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758 [= Curculio interstitialis Reich, 1787; syn. n.].

Upon our request, Michael Morris informed us that the single Marsham syntype of Curculio leucostigma Marsham, 1802 preserved in the Stephens’ collection (Stephens 1823) in the Natural History Museum of London perfectly corresponds to the species hitherto misidentified as Curculio pericarpius. He wrote us: “I examined the material of Marsham’s Curculio leucostigma (1802) in the Natural History Museum. Standing under the name in the Stephens’ collection is a single specimen that is an original Marsham one (with the characteristic small circular label and Marsham’s number 51 on its underside). It cannot be regarded as the holotype of Curculio leucostigma as Stephens (1831) specifically states ‘My specimens were obtained from the Marshamian collection’. The use of the plural shows that other syntypes existed and may well still exist. I believe this specimen should be designated lectotype of Curculio leucostigma Marsham, 1802.”.

We then examined this specimen, and we select it here as the lectotype of Curculio leucostigma Marsham, 1802. It is a female in quite good shape missing of the left posterior leg, obliquely pinned through the right elytron, whose legs touch a circular small label on underside of which is a handwritten number “51” (figs 12-14). The lectotype is labeled (Fig. 15): “Holotype” [circular printed label bordered in red], “LECTOTYPUS ♂; Curculio; leucostigma Marsham, 1802; J. Huang & E. Colonnelli des. 2014” handwritten on red paper and added by us. The “Holotype” label brought by this female was subsequently customary added by curators of the museum, and does not imply any designation previous of the present one, since was never published a note on this specimen which moreover was surely one of a series according to Stephens (1831: 42). In consequence of our designation we establish the following new synonymies as follows: Rhinoncus leucostigma (Marsham, 1820) [ = Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758 sensu Paykull, 1792 not Curculio pericarpius Linnaeus, 1758, syn. n.; = Cryptorhis herbstii Billberg, 1820, syn. n.].

It is a fortunate event that both Rhinoncus leucostigma (Marsham) and R. pericarpius (Linnaeus) in the correct meaning both belong to the same genus and are in addition close each other, since the latter is the type species of Rhinoncus Schoenherr (ICZN 1989).

Following the format of the world catalogue of Ceutorhynchinae by Colonnelli (2004), we give below the complete synonymy of both Rhinoncus species treated here which should replace (unavailable names excluded) that published in the Colonnelli (2004) paper:

Rhinoncus pericarpius (Linnaeus, 1758)

Rhinoncus leucostigma (Marsham, 1802), resurrected name