Notorhopalotria montgomeryensis O’Brien, 2015

O’Brien, Charles W. & Tang, William, 2015, Revision of the New World cycad weevils of the subtribe Allocorynina, with description of two new genera and three new subgenera (Coleoptera: Belidae: Oxycoryninae), Zootaxa 3970 (1), pp. 1-87 : 17-18

Notorhopalotria montgomeryensis O’Brien and Tang, new species

Figures: habitus: 9–12; wing: 100; antennal pocket: 103; male genitalia: 129–130, 175, 199–200, 215; female genitalia: 242.

DESCRIPTION—Body minute to medium-sized (range 1.6–4.0 mm, mean = 2.4 mm, n = 105), moderately broad, robust, elongate-oval; overall pale brown; often bicolored with dark brown macula on pronotum.

Male (holotype). Rostrum: moderately short, 0.82 X as long as pronotum, brown; coarsely punctate and obtusely denticulate dorsally from base nearly to apex; laterally reticulate; very weakly expanded near apex, very weakly curved in lateral view. Head: just behind eyes coarsely punctate, forehead between eyes impunctate and with distinct, moderately long, narrow, median sulcus; forehead strongly narrowed apically, 0.50 X as wide between median basal margin and apical margin of eyes. Antennae: scape 0.83 X as long as eye and as long as desmomeres 1–3 together, 1 short and broad, 2 narrow and elongate, 3–5 short and moniliform, 6–7 short and transverse; scape and desmomeres pale brown; club with rhopalomeres pale yellowish. Prothorax: strongly transverse, 1.36 X wider than long; apex moderately weakly narrowed, evenly weakly roundly expanding from apical 1/6 to basal 1/10, there weakly rounded to base; lateral margins not denticulate, with moderately dense coarse punctures; disc with fine widely separated punctures; uniformly shining pale brown. Scutellum: lateral margins straight and angled, forming triangle; apically broadly rounded, lacking punctures and pubescence. Elytra: 0.70 X as wide as long; evenly expanded behind rounded humeri to declivity, there suddenly evenly broadly rounded to distinctly emarginate apices; with small, fine, scarcely evident, dense, well-separated punctures on entire surface, overall rather smooth; uniformly shining, pale brown. Legs: moderately robust, procoxae weakly convex, lacking processes; profemora asymmetrically swollen, with small apical pit-like impression receiving base of tibia, pit apical margins both flanked with row of small subgranular teeth or processes, surface smooth, shining; protibiae moderately stout in lateral view, with base nearly straight with obtuse bend, lacking inner tooth, inner surface very weakly medially narrowly excavate from middle to near apex, margins of groove distinctly denticulate, apex with small anterior mucro, and subequal tooth. Length, pronotum and elytron: 2.10 mm.

Female. Same as male except: Rostrum: 1.61 X longer than pronotum; moderately strongly curved. Prothorax: 1.50 X wider than long; apex narrow, strongly angulately expanding in weakly rounded line to slightly narrowed broad base. Length, pronotum and elytron: 2.30 mm.

Genitalia and Associated Structures— Male. Length of penis and apodemes together 0.69–1.13 mm (n = 10). Penis: in dorsal view margins subparallel, usually widest at center, from there tapering moderately toward apex, with bulge at orifice; apex with sides emarginate from orifice to rounded tip, angle between sides ~ 30–50˚ (Figs. 129, 175). Female. Sternite VIII: 0.63–0.83 mm long (n = 6); maximum angle between arms of 62–70˚ for half of length, then arms bending inward and becoming subparallel to slightly convergent near apices (Fig. 242). Spermathecal tube: uncoiled length ≥ length of sternite VIII.

Intraspecific Variation— This species exhibits a high degree of variation in size, with body length in females (mean = 2.6 mm, range = 1.8–3.4 mm, n = 45) on average greater than in males (mean = 2.2 mm, range = 1.6–4.0 mm, n = 60); however, the greatest size is attained in males. Specimens from populations inhabiting Zamia pseudomonticola , at elevations from 1200–2000 m, consistently display a darkened transverse, longitudinal or star-shaped spot on the center of the pronotum. These spots are found less frequently and/or are fainter in populations inhabiting Z. fairchildiana at lower elevations. Body length is also consistently shorter in Z. fairchildiana populations (males: mean = 2.0 mm, n = 35; females: mean = 2.3 mm, n = 23) as compared to Z. pseudomonticola populations (males: mean = 2.5 mm, n = 25; females: mean = 2.9 mm, n = 22). Molecular analysis of the 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene indicates that the Notorhopalotria inhabiting five populations of these two closely related Zamia have identical sequences in this gene ( Tang et al. in prep.), indicating that if some of these populations are reproductively isolated from one another, this situation has occurred only recently. Approximately 1 in every 40 males collected at the type locality were major males, which reached sizes greater than females and other males, exhibited the largest forelegs relative to body size and possessed a rostrum with the highest degree of denticulation. Major males were not detected in the populations inhabiting the Osa Península and Golfo Dulce in Costa Rica. The pronotal width relative to the pronotal length shows broad overlap between sexes and among populations (males: mean = 1.40, range = 1.31–1.52, n = 60; females: mean = 1.46, range = 1.38–1.54, n = 45). In contrast, the rostral length relative to the pronotal length shows strong differences between sexes (males: mean = 0.86, range = 0.78– 0.97, n = 60; females: mean = 1.50, range = 1.31–1.61 mm, n = 45); however, within each sex specimens inhabiting Z. pseudomonticola and Z. fairchildiana exhibit broad overlap in RL/PL. Taken together, morphological and genetic data indicate this is a single species inhabiting these two species of cycads over their elevation gradient from sea level to 1500 m.

Etymological Note— This species is named in honor of the Montgomery Botanical Center in Florida for its support of cycad research and conservation in the Caribbean and Central America .

Remarks— This species is currently the westernmost known of its genus. It can be distinguished from other Notorhopalotria by the usual presence of a darkened, transverse, longitudinal, or star-shaped spot on the center of the pronotum. Among other Allocorynina only Protocorynus possesses a maculation on the pronotum. It can be distinguish from all other Notorhopalotria found on other Zamia species inhabiting the forest floor further east by its more arched pronotum (versus relatively flattened pronotum), denser, heavier punctation on the pronotum and by the sharp spines (rather than rounded pegs) on the apex of the profemora ( Tang & O’Brien 2012).

Biology— This species lives and reproduces on the male cones of two closely related species of Zamia : Z. fairchildiana , a shrub of the Pacific lowland rainforest understory which occurs at elevations of 0–700 m and often forms dense colonies near the beach, and Z. pseudomonticola , an understory shrub of premontane forest, which has a distribution disjunct from Z. fairchildiana , north of the Burica Península at elevations of 1200–2000 m (Calonje, pers. comm.). These host species differ significantly in the size of their male cones, with Z. pseudomonticola possessing larger male cones and sporophylls. The male Notorhopalotria inhabiting Z. pseudomonticola have consistently greater rostral length relative to the pronotal length, perhaps reflecting the size of their cone habitat. Notorhopalotria larvae feed and develop within male sporophylls ( Tang & O’Brien 2012; Tang , unpub. obs.) and the size of the sporophylls influence the amount of nutrition and thus the average size of the weevils that ultimately emerge from them. Thus it is not surprising that weevils from Z. pseudomonticola are on average larger (body length mean = 2.7 mm, range = 1.8–4.0 mm, n = 47) than those from Z. fairchildiana (body length mean = 2.1 mm, range = 1.6–3.3 mm, n = 58).

Range— Known from the Pacific sides of Panama, Chiriquí Province and in adjoining Costa Rica, Puntarenas Province, from sea level to 1500 m .

Material Examined— Holotype (by designation) male with the following labels: 1) [rectangular; white; printed in black ink] PANAMA, Chiriquí, San/ Bartolo, Burica pen., 440m / [GPS coord. omitted], ex ♂ / cone Zamia fairchildiana ,/ M. Calonje et.al., I-8-2008; 2) [rectangular; red; printed in black ink] HOLOTYPE ♂ / Notorhopalotria / montgomeryensis/ O’Brien & Tang 2015 CAS). Paratypes: same label data, (240). COSTA RICA: Puntarenas: Osa, Corcovado Nat. Park, POP.1 ex Zamia fairchildiana ♂ cone, C. Lopez Gallego XII-8- 2005 (44); Golfo Dulce, beach nr. Rincon, Zamia fairchildiana ♂ cone, [GPS coord. omitted], W. Tang , XI-26- 2010 (90); Las Cruces, Oct. 1991, L. Gomez no. 468 (12); Las Cruces Biol. Sta. Coto Brus, XII-1994 ♂ cone Zamia , 1100m, L. Gomez (27); Las Cruces Biol. Station San Vito, Coto Brus, XII.1994, 1100m, L. D. Gomez on male Zamia cones, Collection Can. Mus Ottawa, C (22); Wilson Bot. Gard, ex: cone ♂ Zamia pseudomonticola , [GPS coord. omitted], 1235m, W. Tang , XI-24-2010 (279); Las Cruces, Loop Trail, cone ♂ Zamia pseudomonticola , [GPS coord. omitted] ~ 1300 m, W. Tang , XI-24-2010 (5); Wilson Bot.Gar., ex ♂ cone Zamia pseudomonticola , 10-XII-2012, M. Jones (3). PANAMA: Chiriquí: near San Bartolo, ♂ cone Zamia fairchildiana, A. Taylor, Jan 2005 or ’06 (69); Santa Clara, Finca Hartmann, cone ♂ Zamia pseudomonticola , [GPS coord. omitted], 1500m, Alberto Taylor XII-29-2001 (56). Paratypes (847) deposited at ANIC, ASUT, BMNH, CAS, CMNC, CSCA, CWOB, EMEC, FMNH, FSCA, IADIZA, IEXA, INBio, IZCAS, MIUP, MNHN, STRI, UCFC, UNAM, USNM, ZMHB.