Desmocerus aureipennis Chevrolat, 1855

The habits of D. aureipennis Chevrolat have been described by Blaisdell (1892), Fall (1901), Burke (1921) and Essig (1926).

Taxonomy and Nomenclature
The valid name is aureipennis Chevrolat, 1855. The incorrect "auripennis" (which translates to "ear wing" rather than "gold wing") was accidentally misprinted by Chevrolat (1858), and subsequently adopted by LeConte (year) and subsequent American authors including Linsley and Chemsak (1972) and Halstead and Oldham (1990). 

Linsley and Chemsak (1972) revised Desmocerus as part of their monograph on the Lepturinae of North America, and introduced the treatment of piperi Webb, cribripennis Horn, and lacustris Linsley and Chemsak, 1972 as subspecies of aureipennis Chevrolat, citing the presence of morphological "intermediates" between the species.  This system was rejected in a little-known revision of Desmocerus by Halstead and Oldham (1990), who treated, aureipennis, cribripennis and piperi as separate species, noting the apparent sympatry of cribripennis and aureipennis in California and the obligatory use of separate host plants between the two species. These authors also synonymized lacustris under piperi Webb and dimorphus Fisher under californicus Horn. The latter synonymy was especially controversial in light of dimorphus, the so-called "Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle" being recently designated an [endangered] species by ______ . As noted in Barr (year), the latter synonymy was rejected by North American cerambycid authorities (citing personal communication with J. Chemsak), and the Halstead and Oldham revision has been more or less ignored since. Most recently, the L&C'72 system, with four aureipennis subspecies, has appeared in Monné and Bezark (2013). 

[A statement regarding the confusion of type locality, and acknowledging the discovery of specimens by H and O]... 

D. aureipennis  was described in a brief note by the French entomologist Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat (1855), under a section titled "Two Species from the Rocky Mountains." In a subsequent, more detailed description, which included a color plate of the male holotype, Chevrolat (1858) noted that the specimen was given to him by Andrew Murray, presumably the entomologist Reverend. A. Murray from Edinburgh, Scotland. The Rev. Murray had recently served as the Secretary of the Oregon Botanical Association, which in 1850 had send a young collector, John Jeffrey (of Pinus jeffrey), to procure seeds and beetle specimens from the Pacific west coast of North America, which had only just begun to be explored.  In February of 1853, Murray made a presentation to the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh on the beetles he had received from the Jeffrey expedition which had originated from the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and (possibly) Northern Washington (the itinerary of Jeffrey has been traced by Coville (1897), and several subsequent authors). However only select specimens were mentioned in the article, not including aureipennis.  

No records of Jeffrey collecting elderberry. The holotype of aureipennis Chevrolat is at the British National Museum in London, but the label is no help. 

References

1. Blaisdell, F. E. 1892. Notes on the habits of some species of Coleoptera observed in San Diego County, California. Insect Life, 5: 35.
2. Burke, H. E. 1921. Biological notes on Desmocerus; a genus of roundhead borers, the species of which infest various elders. J. Econ. Entomol. Soc., 26: 101.
3. Chevrolat, L. A. A. 1855. Description de vingt et une espèces nouvelles de coléoptères longicornes. Revue et Mag. Zool., (2)7:178-187
4. Chevrolat, L. A. A. 1858. Description de nouvelles espèces de coléoptères. Ann. Soc. ent France, (3)6:315-329, pl. 8.
5. Coville, F. V. 1893. The itinerary of John Jeffrey, an early botanical explorer of western North America. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 11: 57-60. Google Books.
6. Essig, E. O. 1926. Insects of Western North America. 1035 pp. MacMillan Co., New York.
7. Fall, H. C. 1901. List of the Coleoptera of southern California, with notes on habits and distribution and descriptions of new species. Canadian Entomologist, 29: 233-244.
8. Halstead, J.A., and J.A. Oldham. 1990. Revision of the nearctic Desmocerus Audinet-Seville with emphasis on the federally threatened valley elderberry longhorn beetle (Coleoptera: cerambycidae). Environmental Section Staff Report, Kings River Conservation District, Fresno, CA.
9. Linsley, E. G., and J. A. Chemsak. 1972. Cerambycidae of North America. Part VI. No. 1. Taxonomy and Classification of the Subfamily Lepturinae. University of California Publications in Entomology 69,  xiii+138 pp, 2 pl.
10. Monné M. A., and L. G. Bezark. 2013. Checklist of the Oxypeltidae, Vesperidae, Disteniidae and Cerambycidae, (Coleoptera) of the Western Hemisphere. Available from: plant.cdfa.ca.gov/byciddb/documents.html (Accessed on 4 July 2013).
11. Murray, Andrew. 1853a. In Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh: “On some insects from the Rocky Mountains, received from the botanical expedition to Oregon under Mr. Jeffrey.”  The Naturalist: a popular monthly Magazine illustrative of the Animal, Vegetable and Mineral Kingdoms. Morris, B. R., ed., 3: 110-112. Google Books.
12. Murray, Andrew. 1853b. In Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh: “On some insects from the Rocky Mountains, received from the botanical expedition to Oregon under Mr. Jeffrey.”  The Zoologist: a popular miscellany of Natural History. Edward Newman, London.  3893-3895. Google Books.