Premnophilus Browne, 1962

Atkinson, Thomas H., Flechtmann, Carlos A. H. & Petrov, Alexander V., 2023, Synopsis of the Neotropical Premnobiina (Coleoptera: Curculonidae: Scolytinae Ipini) with descriptions of new species, new synonymy and keys to species, Zootaxa 5249 (1), pp. 69-91 : 79

Genus Premnophilus Browne, 1962

Premnophlius Browne, 1962: 79

Type species. Xyleborus joveri Schedl, 1951: 41 [= Xyleborus quadrispinosus Schedl, 1938: 461 ; synonymy Schedl 1963: 558]; original designation.

Taxonomic comments. Schedl (1964: 52) treated Premnophlius as a synonym of Premnobius . Cognato (2013) removed Premnophilus from synonymy with Premnobius . He included the two Afrotropical species originally placed there by Browne and also indicated that there was an unnamed species from Guyana.

Distribution. At present, two species are known from the Afrotropical region and seven new Neotropical species are described here. The American species are all known from tropical rain forest areas of the Amazon Basin and northeastern Atlantic coast.

Biology. Browne (1962) noted that Premnophilus quadrispinosus (Schedl) has an ambrosial habit. All other species, including the newly described Neotropical ones have been collected in traps or canopy fogging and nothing is known of their habits, thought they are presumed to be ambrosia beetles.