Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok VII. - Natura Somogyiensis 22. (Kaposvár, 2012)

Ábrahám L.: "On the other hand, what is this Eastern aeschnoides?" Morton 1926 - an undescribed Palpares species from the Eastern Mediterranean (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae)

Abrahám L: "On the other hand, what is this Eastern aeschnoides?'

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Later on Rambur (1842) put the species into new combination as Palpares speciosus (Linnaeus, 1758), reporting the occurrence of the species only from the southern part of Africa (cap de Bonne-Espérance). Rambur (1842), who had described several Palpares species by then listed 16 Palpares species altogether in his monograph. He did not find Charpentier’s (1825) morphological comparison convincing enough and he doubted that Charpentier had really diagnosed P. speciosus.

Based on our recent knowledge it can be concluded that the distribution of Palpares speciosus (Linnaeus, 1758) is only spread in the southern hemisphere in Africa (South Africa), (Mansell and Erasmus 2002) and it is significantly different from the Palpares libelloides (Linnaeus, 1764) which distributed in the southern part of Europe and in Asia Minor.

The current status of Palpares speciosus (Linnaeus, 1758) is a valid (Stange 2004) but the combination needs to be revised (Mansell 2010).

Palpares libelloides (Linnaeus, 1764) or Palpares libelluloides (Linnaeus, 1767)

Hemerobius libelloides Linnaeus, 1764 - Linnaeus 1764 (Odescr)

Libellula turcica Petiver & Empson, 1767 - Petiver & Empson 1767 (hom. n., syn. n.)

Myrmeleon libelluloides [sic!] (Linnaeus, 1764) - Linnaeus 1767 (Comb)

Myrmecoleon libelluloides (Linnaeus, 1767) - Burmeister 1839 (Comb)

Palpares libelluloides (Linnaeus, 1767) - Rambur 1842 (Comb)

Palpares libelloides (Linnaeus, 1764) - Hagen 1866 (Comb), Stange 2004 (Comb)

Six years after Palpares speciosus (Linnaeus, 1758) was described, another species of the genus Palpares was also described as "Hemerobius libelloides Linnaeus, 1764". According to Linnaeus (1764), the area ("Europe australi, Aleppo, Cap. b. speitr) of this species was Southern Europe, Aleppo (Syria) and Cape of Good Hope, (South Africa). His description is much more detailed than that of Palpares speciosus described earlier. His work was probably facilitated by Petiver (1702) who earlier mentioned and illustrated (Fig. 4) a species from Aleppo named as "Libellula turcica”.

At the end of the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th century, James Petiver (1663- 1718), an English researcher had significant achievements in several areas of science. He adopted the binominal nomenclature from the prominent naturalist John Ray (1627- 1705), using binominal names to the living organisms. This nomenclature was effectively introduced only after the 10th edition of the Systema Naturae, in which a systematic scientific description was given of each species by Linnaeus (1758). Petiver had such a telling affect, that his works were amended and published post mortem several times (Petiver and Empson 1767). Today the species Libellula turcica Petiver & Empson, 1767 is to be considered a junior synonym of Palpares libelloides, since it meets the requirements of taxonomical methodology but the valid name was given three years earlier by Linnaeus (1764). Besides this, the genus Libelulla Petiver & Empson, 1767 in Neuroptera is a new junior homonym of Libellula Linnaeus, 1758 (Odonata).

Contemporaneously with the work of Petiver & Empson (1767), Linnaeus (1767) published the 12th edition of the Systema Naturae, in which the species Palpares libelloides was listed again as "Myrmeleon libelluloides" in a new combination. While quoting his own work (Linnaeus 1764) he either misspelled the name of this species or it was misprinted.

The original label handwritten by Linnaeus would solve the above mentioned question. The two specimens in the collection of the species can be found. The specimen number: 4924 has prepared wings but no labels (Fig. 5), its pin seems to be from Linnaeus’s era. The specimen number: 4917 has wings at resting, labeled as "Genoa