Talk:Plagiometriona

Synonymy?

Dyanega: I don't see any explicit statement on BugGuide or anywhere that Helocassis is a junior synonym of Plagiometriona (nor does there ever appear to have been, going back via Wayback Machine), only some old controversy over whether to accept Borowiec (1999)'s taxonomy at all, in particular the transfer of Plagiometriona clavata to Helocassis so I gather (?). In any case, it looks like they've since changed their minds as of earlier this year in fact and so BugGuide now uses Helocassis in place of Plagiometriona to contain H. clavata. Monster Iestyn (talk) 06:30, 16 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The genus Plagiometriona is still treated as valid, but separate from Helocassis. If one accepts this, then clavata is one of 8 species in the latter genus: clavata, crucipennis, distorta, flavorugosa, flexuosa, incurva, maculicollis, and testudinaria. Looks pretty well-settled from what I can see, I guess there aren't any US pubs post-2003 to cite. The Riley at al. catalog from 2003 did not list Helocassis as a synonym, but it also treated clavata as a Plagiometriona. I'm not exactly sure why I said "synonym" when I created the redirect. I agree, it is confusing, it would be nice to get some clarity on this from an authoritative review in print. Dyanega (talk) 16:02, 16 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Dyanega Same, unfortunately I don't see many US leaf beetle pubs very often lately (and I scour the internet for new leaf beetle pubs basically daily now), let alone on US Cassidinae specifically, and certainly nothing relevant here... though for now, yes, it looks to me like the consensus is settling on Plagiometriona and Helocassis being separate (but closely-related) valid genera, at least judging by websites such as BugGuide and iNaturalist. ITIS meanwhile updated their Cassidinae taxonomy in 2011 mainly after Borowiec's work and so they also list Helocassis as valid currently. CoL in turn appear to base their Cassidinae taxonomy on ITIS's (though somehow they've miscited "Lech Borowiec", the sole author of the 1999 World Catalogue, as "Borowiec, & Lech."??). It looks as if Plagiometriona sensu Riley et al. 2003 is not holding out after all. Monster Iestyn (talk) 17:08, 16 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]