Baiocis spicatus Beaver & Liu, 2018

Beaver, Roger A., 2018, A review of the genus Baiocis Browne, 1962 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Platypodinae), with new species, new synonymy and a key to males, Zootaxa 4434 (3), pp. 481-501 : 487-489

Baiocis spicatus Beaver & Liu , new species

( Figs 20‒21 )

Male: Body length 2.5‒2.6 mm, 4.2 times longer than wide. Body yellowish brown, head and posterior third of elytra darker. Head with frons weakly impressed between eyes, coarsely punctured, the punctures with short erect hairs, median line short, angularly separated from vertex with a weak carina on each side. Pronotum 1.5 times as long as wide, widest behind deep femoral grooves, maximum width about 1.4 times minimum, disc smooth, shining, weakly alutaceous in anterior half and close to base, almost glabrous above, a few short hairs laterally, disc with scattered very fine punctures, median line extending from near base to just in front of narrowest part of pronotum. Elytra 2.4 times longer than wide, 1.8 times as long as pronotum, horizontal, the sides subparallel, widest about middle, tapering slightly posteriorly without constriction before apex, the lateral margins with 6 to 7 serrations close to apex, visible from dorsal view, each serration with a single hair; disc smooth, shining, glabrous except for a few erect hairs posteriorly, striae finely punctured, the punctures elongate on 1 st striae , not impressed; interstriae indistinct with very fine punctures, more widely spaced than those of striae; disc ending in a carinate rim forming an almost transverse line. Declivity narrow, lunate, shining, posterolateral angles not projecting. Abdomen first segment with a gibbous ventral median process, its apex irregularly rounded with two pairs of minute denticles, the inner pair closely placed in the middle, the outer pair more widely separated, the process extending slightly over 2nd ventrite, 2nd to 4th ventrites dull, each with a row of erect hairs at the sides, not extending across the median third, apical margins slightly thickened, fifth ventrite concave with thickened margins, a conical median tubercle towards the apex, with a single pair of hairs, one on each side of the tubercle. Anterior margin of impression on metaventrite and metanepisternum with a short carina on the metanepisternum. Metacoxa with a spine projecting posteriorly.

Female: Unknown.

Holotype: Male: LAOS-NE, Houa Phan prov. , 20°13'09-19''N, 103°59'54'' ‒ 104°00'03''E, 1480‒1510m, Phou Pane Mt. , 22.iv.‒14.v.2008, Vit. Kubáň leg. (Deposited in NHMP)

Paratype: Male: as holotype. (Deposited in RAB)

Etymology: The Latin specific name spicatus is a perfect passive participle of spico, meaning spiky, and refers to the conical tubercle (spica) on the fifth ventrite.

Diagnosis: The species generally resembles Baiocis pernanulus , B. unispineus and B. angustiformis . All four species have a carina at the anterior margin of the metanepisternum and metaventrite depression, rather than small tubercles. The posterolateral angle of the elytra is visible from above. However, in B. spicatus the posterolateral angle of the elytra is not extended to form a tooth, and the apical margin of the elytral disc is more nearly transverse. In lateral or ventral view, the species are easily separated by the presence in B. spicatus of a conical median tubercle on the fifth abdominal ventrite (absent in the other three species). The species is intermediate in size (2.5‒2.6 mm long) between B. unispineus (2.7‒2.8 mm), and B. pernanulus (1.9‒2.4 mm) and B. angustiformis (2.0‒ 2.4 mm).

Biology: Unknown.

Figures

FIGURES 18–25. Baiocis species. 18‒19. B.crassiventris. 18, male, lateral view (2.4 mm); 19, female, dorsal view (2.3 mm); 20‒21. B. spicatus male (2.5 mm): 20, lateral view; 21, dorsal view; 22‒23. B. spiniventris male (2.7 mm): 22, lateral view; 23, dorsal view; 24‒25. B. angustipennis female (2.5 mm): 24, lateral view; 25, dorsal view.