Orchestomerus Dietz, 1896

Yoshitake, Hiraku & Anderson, Robert S., 2015, A Review Of The Genus Orchestomerus Dietz (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Ceutorhynchinae: Cnemogonini) Of The Usa, The Coleopterists Bulletin 69 (4), pp. 565-578 : 566

Orchestomerus Dietz, 1896

Orchestomerus Dietz 1896: 412 . Type species: Orchestomerus wickhami Dietz 1896 , subsequent designation by Colonnelli 1991.

Diagnosis. Orchestomerus is characterized mainly by having a pair of carinate or obtuse prominences on the middle of the pronotum, edentate femora, tibiae with shallow grooves and lacking definite angles basally on outer margins, mesosternal canal that is limited laterally by oblique, apically narrowed costae, and transverse impressions on the sides of abdominal ventrite 5 laterally along the basal margin. The genus is very similar in general appearance to Craponius LeConte, 1876 known from the Nearctic Region. However, Craponius has the tibiae deeply grooved and emarginate along the outer margin for reception of the tarsi, the fore and middle tibiae have basally sharply angulate outer margins, the mesosternal canal is limited laterally by subparallel costae, and abdominal ventrite 5 lacks lateral impressions. Orchestomerus also closely resembles Hypocoeliodes Faust, 1896 , but Hypocoeliodes possesses dentate femora and abdominal ventrite 5 lacks lateral impressions.

Distribution. Nearctic and Neotropical Regions ( Colonnelli 2004).

Natural History. Our knowledge of the biology of Orchestomerus weevils is still limited, but available data suggest that they are associated with plants in the family Vitaceae (Korotyaev and Anderson 2002; Colonnelli 2004; Eiseman 2014).