Faustius, Kuschel, 2008

Kuschel, Guillermo, 2008, Curculionoidea (weevils) of New Caledonia and Vanuatu: Basal families and some Curculionidae, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 197, pp. 99-250 : 201

Genus FAUSTIUS n. gen.

Type species: Orthorhinus albosparsus Faust.

DESCRIPTION. — Elytra parallel-sided, distinctly wider at shoulders than prothorax at base, with more rounded shoulders and weaker humeral callus than in Orthorhinus ; odd interstriae flat, or slightly raised or subcostate, lacking tufts of setae. Fore femora distinctly longer than hind femora; fore tibiae not compressed, its dorsal edge at apex not angulate, with oblique, distinctly ascending distal comb. Hind femora with a large right-angled tooth, this distinctly larger than on middle femora, with short cilia; hind tibiae largely straight, slightly curved only on basal third, lacking tooth on lower edge near apex but sometimes somewhat expanded; fore and middle tibiae with small or indistinct premucro. Mesepisternum prominent, tuberculiform, between this and epimeron deeply impressed.

Male: tegmen with well-pigmented ring, anterior margin not bisinuate, posterior margin without a tooth between parameral lobes, these lobes far apart, broad, one-half length of apodeme. Aedeagus as long as abdomen, parallel-sided up to ostial area, then converging to one-half of its width and rounding off broadly at tip, a little paler latero-apically; apodemes as long as aedeagal body; internal sac with a large, deeply pigmented basal sclerite resembling pliers, contained well inside aedeagal body, as long as one-third the length of pedon; median sclerites fused, as large as the tectal (dorsal pale area) width, 0.75 of the length of basal sclerite, emarginated at base, bilobed at apex.

Female: not dissected.

DISTRIBUTION. — New Guinea and islands to the west (Ceram, Amboina, Buru).

HOSTPLANTS. — Unknown.

ETYMOLOGY. — Named after Johannes K. E. Faust (1822-1903), one of the most prominent and prolific curculionists of the past on occasion of the first centenary of his death.

REMARKS. — To Faustius belong, apart from O. albosparsus Faust from New Guinea, also O. arrogans Pascoe from Ceram, Amboina and Buru, O. illex Faust and O. postoculatus Marshall from New Guinea.