Melanterius servulus Pascoe, 1872

Pinzón-Navarro, Sara V., Jennings, Debbie & Oberprieler, Rolf G., 2017, Host associations of Melanterius Erichson (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cleogonini), with a diagnosis and delimitation of the genus and description of five new species, Zootaxa 4298 (1), pp. 1-77 : 14

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4298.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6F38752A-0669-488E-879B-8881EC80ECF2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6017937

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A160333C-FFA5-FF90-F287-AA82A09DA566

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Melanterius servulus Pascoe, 1872
status

 

Melanterius servulus Pascoe, 1872 View in CoL

( Figs. 7–8, 13 View FIGURES 1 – 13 , 24–25 View FIGURES 24 – 27 )

Melanterius servulus Pascoe, 1872: 142 View in CoL

This species was described from King George’s Sound (Albany) and is seemingly restricted to south-western Western Australia. It is similar to M. maculatus View in CoL in being reddish-brown and carrying broad setae, but it is a larger and broader species. It also differs from M. maculatus View in CoL in that the elytral interstriae 2 and 4 are elevated and costate on the declivity like the adjacent odd-numbered ones ( Fig. 13 View FIGURES 1 – 13 ) and in that the depression of the apical abdominal ventrite is very broad and transverse and flanked on either side by a large seta (a much smaller seta in M. maculatus View in CoL ). The female may further be distinguished from that of M. maculatus View in CoL by its tibial uncus forming an angle with the tibial edge ( Fig. 8 View FIGURES 1 – 13 ), and the male has a diagnostic penis ( Fig. 25 View FIGURES 24 – 27 ) with broadly truncate apex and a pair of large, flat, caliper-like apical sclerites.

Melanterius servulus View in CoL was first reared from the seeds of Acacia saligna View in CoL (as A. cyanophylla View in CoL ) in 1970 at Borden by S. Neser and subsequently from seeds of Acacia cyclops View in CoL in 1975 in the Esperance area by M. van den Berg (van den Berg, 1980) and from seeds of Paraserianthes lophanta in 1984 and 1985 in the Albany area by M. Morris and G. Dennill. It was released in South Africa in 1989 against P. lophanta and in 1991 and 1994 against A. cyclops View in CoL , but both “ types ” (referred to as B and A, respectively) established only slowly ( Donnelly , 1992; Dennill et al. 1999, Schmidt et al., 1999; Impson et al., 2011). The two types are reported to display behavioural differences on their respective hosts ( Dennill et al., 1999), but a detailed morphological study ( Oberprieler & Zimmerman , 2001) and a molecular analysis ( Clarke , 2002) could detect no taxonomic or genetic differences between them. Although definite host records for M. servulus View in CoL from Australia are limited to A. cyclops View in CoL and P. lophanta , Donnelly’s (1992) host specificity tests in South Africa showed that M. servulus View in CoL can successfully develop on all other introduced Australian acacias. In spite of this indicated lack of host specificity, the weevil has seemingly not established on any of these plants in South Africa , and it is only moderately established even on its proper hosts, A. cyclops View in CoL and P. lophanta ( Dennill et al., 1999; Schmidt et al., 1999; Impson et al., 2011). We collected the species on ten other Acacia View in CoL species as well ( Table 1), but of the native Western Australian ones ( A. chamaeleon View in CoL , A. microbotrya View in CoL , A. pentadenia View in CoL , A. subcaerulea View in CoL , A. trulliformis View in CoL ) only on A. microbotrya View in CoL and A. trulliformis View in CoL in series to suggest these as possibly being additional breeding hosts ( Table 2).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Coleoptera

Family

Curculionidae

Genus

Melanterius

Loc

Melanterius servulus Pascoe, 1872

Pinzón-Navarro, Sara V., Jennings, Debbie & Oberprieler, Rolf G. 2017
2017
Loc

Melanterius servulus

Pascoe 1872: 142
1872
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