Aphanerostethus armatus Lewis & Kojima, 2024

Lewis, Jake H., Kojima, Hiroaki, Suenaga, Miyuki, Petsopoulos, Dimitrios, Fujisawa, Yusuke, Truong, Xuan Lam & Warren, Dan L., 2024, The era of cybertaxonomy: X-ray microtomography reveals cryptic diversity and concealed cuticular sculpture in Aphanerostethus Voss, 1957 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), ZooKeys 1217, pp. 1-45 : 1-45

Aphanerostethus armatus Lewis & Kojima sp. nov.

Figs 4 A , 12 A, B , 13 A, B, E

Specimens examined.

Holotype: Malaysia: • Perak, Taiping, Bukit Larut , 7. I. 1990, T. Yasunaga, deposited in KUM, JHLHY_DAR_078 .

Diagnosis.

Body length 1.7 mm. Cuticle coated in crusty dark, sandy gray, and white scales in weakly defined pattern. Funicle with five articles. Only odd elytral intervals with erect scales. Prosternal cavity very weakly defined and without steep lateral ridges (Fig. 13 A, B ). Procoxae contiguous. Erect elytral scales evenly distributed, not concentrated in bundle. Scutellum not prominent. Femora each with elongate, thorn-like tooth ventrally (Fig. 13 E ). Metaventrite flattened between meta- and mesocoxae, without a distinct elevated transverse ridge.

Distribution.

This species is currently only known from Perak, Malaysia.

Etymology.

The specific name armatus is a Latin adjective that refers to the distinctly elongate, sharp tooth on the ventral edge of each femur (see Fig. 13 E ).

Figures

Figure 4. X-ray microtomography generated 3 D models of Aphanerostethus pronota with scales removed, revealing otherwise hidden differences in underlying puncture morphology A Aphanerostethus armatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 078) B – D Aphanerostethus bifidus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 092, 101, and 103, respectively) E Aphanerostethus decoratus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 079) F Aphanerostethus spinosus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 077).

Figure 12. Lateral and dorsal photographs of Aphanerostethus species A, B Aphanerostethus armatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 078) C, D Aphanerostethus nudus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 014). Scale bars: 0.5 mm.

Figure 13. X-ray microtomography generated 3 D models of Aphanerostethus A, B A. armatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 078) shallow prosternal canal C, D A. magnus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 029) deep prosternal canal E A. armatus (JHLHY _ DAR _ 078) fore-femur showing elongate, thorn-like ventral tooth F A. japonicus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 051) fore-femur showing blunt, obtuse ventral tooth.