Orthorhinoides punctirostris, 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 : 207-208

Orthorhinoides punctirostris n. sp.

Figs 96, 169, 170

DESCRIPTION. — Integument dark brown; scaling mostly not imbricate, yellowish brown, white on forehead and rostrum and in front of a dark band across middle of elytra; head with two glabrous, more or less asperate dots in the white forehead.

Head flat anteriorly, not granulose, densely squamose except for two dark dots; smooth posterior area dull, well-exposed if rostrum facing vertically down. Rostrum slender, in male 1.3 x longer than prothorax, 5 x longer than wide at apex, moderately curved, weakly saddled at base, coarsely punctate, squamose on basal half or more, with prorostrum as long as wide; in female 1.9 x longer than prothorax, more than 7 x longer than wide at apex, rather strongly curved, more deeply saddled, coarsely punctate, with two low carinae on either side at base, squamose on basal one-quarter, with prorostrum a little more than twice as long as wide at apex, and slightly broadening apicad, finely punctate. Prothorax 1.17-1.22 x wider than long, moderately convex, uniformly granulose, with short, fine median carina at apex. Scutellum pubescent.

Elytra granulose on all interstriae, granules on odd interstriae usually slightly larger. Male abdomen flattened rather than impressed at base, with appressed pubescence. Fore coxae contiguous. Fore femora in male not asperate on lower edge, with well-developed tooth; hind femora extending to end of abdomen. Fore tibiae in male robust, well short of trochanter when folded, curved, not asperate on lower edge, lacking a tooth opposite femoral tooth; hind tibiae with tooth on lower edge at apical two-thirds. Fore tarsi in male with fringe of long white hairs, segment 2 symmetrical, distinctly longer than 3.

Male: tegmen with short parameral sector, lobes fused except at apex. Aedeagus as in Figs 169, 170, large; body 1.825 -1.920 mm long, 0.550 mm wide, straight-sided, slightly widening apicad, dorsolateral part of pedon nearly onethird of aedeagal width, strongly pigmented; apex ogival, with narrow pale rim; tectum ending with a tapering median sclerite between ostial valves; apodemes 1.23-1.28 x longer than body. Internal sac with a relatively short, flat tapering basal sclerite, a pair of rather long (0.225 mm) median sclerites, a weakly pigmented anteriorly two-pronged, posteriorly incised steering plate, and rather thick, not crossing over ostial rods connected with inner edges of ostial valves.

Length: 7.7-10.8 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype male, 10.8 x 4.0 mm, Plateau de Dogny , 700-900 m, 1.II.1963, G. Kuschel , NZAC. Paratypes with BPBM, IRSN, NZAC, QMBA .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. 1 male, Pic d’ Amoa, 650 m, 31.III.1968, J. L. Gressitt & T. C. Maa; 2 females, Forêt 480 m, 3.I.2005, G. B. Monteith; 2 males, 1 female, Plateau de de Thy, 550 m, 1.III.1960, J. L. Gressitt; 1 male, 1 female, no Dogny, 700-900 m, 1.II.1963, G. Kuschel; 1 male, Col d’Amieu, locality, Coll. Fauvel. 9 specimens .

HOSTPLANTS. — Not known.

ETYMOLOGY. — The specific name ‘punctiróstris’ is a Latin compound made up from ‘punctum’ for a tiny hole, and the adjectivised form of ‘rostrum’ for face, the technical term for the proboscis of weevils.

REMARKS. — O. punctirostris is similar in general appearance to O. centurio and O. cylindricus , differing considerably in features of male genitalia.