Microperus Wood, 1980

Smith, Sarah M., Beaver, Roger A. & Cognato, Anthony I., 2020, A monograph of the Xyleborini (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) of the Indochinese Peninsula (except Malaysia) and China, ZooKeys 983, pp. 1-442 : 1

Microperus Wood, 1980

Microperus Wood, 1980: 94.

Type species.

Xyleborus theae Eggers, 1940 = Xyleborus myristicae Schedl, 1939b; original designation.

Diagnosis.

1.2-3.1 mm, 1.93-3.17 × as long as wide. Microperus is distinguished by the scutellum either narrow, minute, convex and slightly raised above elytra or not visible; dense tuft of setae present along elytral base associated with an elytral mycangium; elytral bases sinuate (rarely transverse), costate; antennal club truncate (type 2) or flattened, types 3 or 4, sutures gently sinuate and pubescent on anterior face, 1-3 sutures visible on posterior face; pronotum from lateral view taller than basic (type 2) or with pronotal disc longer than anterior slope (type 7); pronotum from dorsal view basic and parallel sided (type 2), or subquadrate (type 3); anterior margin of pronotum without a row of serrations; and pronotal disc punctate. In addition, the procoxae are contiguous, outer margin of protibiae obliquely or distinctly triangular and armed by 6-8 denticles, and posterior face flattened, unarmed.

Similar genera.

Coptodryas , Xyleborinus .

Distribution.

Found throughout the Paleotropics, Australia and Oceania.

Gallery system.

The tunnels are irregularly branched, more or less in one transverse plane, and enlarged into small brood chambers in the longitudinal plane in places. In a few species (e.g., M. corporaali , M. nugax , M. undulatus ), the brood chambers are in the transverse plane ( Browne 1961b).

Remarks.

Microperus is in need of further taxonomic/phylogenetic investigation given its potential polyphyly and confusion with Coptodryas ( Hulcr et al. 2007; Cognato et al. 2020b). Hulcr and Cognato (2013) suggest that the species may engage in communal breeding, as a result of interconnecting gallery systems.