Devernodes, Grebennikov, 2018

Grebennikov, Vasily V., 2018, Discovery of Lymantini weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Molytinae) outside the Americas: Devernodes, a new genus for five new species from Southeast Asia, Zootaxa 4500 (3), pp. 363-380 : 365

Devernodes gen. n.

Type species: Devernodes chthonia sp. n., here designated.

Diagnosis. Adults of the genus Devernodes can be most efficiently distinguished from those of other Curculionidae distributed in the Palaeaerctic or Oriental Regions by a unique combination of two easy-to-see head characters: antennae with 6-segmented funicle and apparently unsegmented club, as well as a strong constriction separating the eye-bearing rostrum from the head capsule. Life stages of Devernodes other than adults are unknown and cannot be identified using data other than the herein released DNA sequences.

Description. Black or dark-brown, with compact and strongly sclerotized body, about 3–5 mm in body length, in dorsal view elongate, parallel-sided or slightly rounded. Rostrum variously curved, about 4 times as long as wide, with longitudinal lines of punctures sometimes merging in grooves. Prementum distinctly visible in ventral view. Antennae with apparently unsegmented club and funicle consisting of six antennomeres. Eyes fully developed and rounded or partly reduced and crescentic, each consisting of about 7–30 ommatidia. Head capsule spherical, smooth and shiny, without punctures or pilosity, separated from eye-bearing rostrum by notable constriction. Pronotum densely and evenly punctate, prothorax without ocular lobes, procoxae contiguous or narrowly separated, all femora without spurs or spines. Elytral shoulders effaced, each elytron with 7 or 9 punctate striae and with short, sparse setae on intrestriae. Pygidium in both sexes formed by tergite VII. Male sternite IX Ishaped (=not Y-shaped), male genitalia of pedal type, without large internal sclerotization. Each of two female hemisternites IX entire (not subdivided into apical “stylus” and basal “coxite”).

Diversity, distribution and biology. Biological information on all five Devernodes species is restricted to the collecting circumstances suggesting that the adult beetles inhabit forest floor litter in Southeast Asia. It should be noted that despite intense sampling in China and Taiwan ( Grebennikov 2018b), Mount Emei Shan is the only locality where specimens of Devernodes were recorded.

Etymology. Devernodes , patronymic, derived by adding the Latin suffix -odes to the family name of Linda DeVerno (retired, formerly Director of the Ottawa Plant Laboratory, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Ottawa, Canada), in recognition of her role in development of the sampling program in the Asia-Pacific Region, which lead to the discovery of this new genus. Gender masculine.