Dracophyllius dracophylli, 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 : 203

Dracophyllius dracophylli n. sp.

Figs 92, 163, 164

DESCRIPTION. — Integument dark brown or black; vestiture sparse, head, rostrum and discal area of pronotum glabrous or nearly so, sides of prothorax and elytra with small ovate or elongate grey scales, scales sparser on elytral dorsum, underside sparsely pubescent.

Head convex anteriorly, finely pubescent, not granulose, punctate; vertex impunctate, dullish, not sharply contrasting from remainder of head. Rostrum in male nearly half as long again as prothorax, in female nearly twice as long as prothorax, in lateral view distinctly sinuous at base, moderately curved in both sexes; rostrum in male about 5.5 x as long as wide at apex, finely punctate, not rugose, finely pubescent; prorostrum more than twice as long as wide; rostrum in female slightly more than 7 x longer than broad at apex, more finely punctate than in male, postrostrum a fraction longer than prorostrum. Prothorax 1.3 x wider than long, glabrous disc nearly flat, minutely punctate along median line, gradually more coarsely punctate towards sides, punctation consisting of larger and smaller puncta, disc lacking granules.

Elytra with low, rather indistinct granules and indistinct setae. Prosternal process between coxae narrow. About half width of antennal club. Abdomen in male shallowly impressed, lacking erect hairs. Hind femora not extending to beyond ventrite 4. Fore tibiae nos aspirate on lower edge, with slight swelling or blunt tooth opposite femoral tooth; hind tibiae lacking tooth basad from premucro. Tarsi black, with sparse white pubescence; segment 2 of front tarsi broader than long, slightly shorter than segment 3.

Male: tegmen as in Fig. 164, parameral sector moderately long and broad, lobes free, contiguous, or nearly so. Aedeagus as in Fig. 163, deeply pigmented for most part; aedeagal body 1.50 x 0.45 mm; apodemes 2.2 mm long, nearly half as long again as body; internal sac with a 1.5 mm long basal sclerite, an anteriorly and posteriorly emarginated steering plate, a pair of thin median bars, and a pair of ostial rods.

Length: 10.0- 11.5 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype male, 10.0 x 3.8 mm, Mt. Do , 22.X.1978, J. C. Watt , NZAC. Paratypes with CSIRO, NZAC, QBMA .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. 1 male, Mt. Panié , verticillatum, G. Kuschel ; 1 male, same place, 700 m, 2.XI.1978, G. 1300- 1160 m, 15.V.1984, G. Monteith & D. Cook; 1 male, Mt. Do, Kuschel; 1 female, Mt. Mou, 600 m, 24.V.1984. on Dracophyllum , 1000 m, 22.X.1978, under bark of recently dead trunk of Arau- G. Monteith & D. Cook. 5 specimens .

caria, J. C. Watt; 1 female, Mt. Mou, 3.II.1963, on Dracophyllum

HOSTPLANTS. — Dracophyllum verticillatum (Epacridacaeae) .

ETYMOLOGY. — The epithet ‘dracophýlli’ is the genitive form of the plant genus specimens were found on.

REMARKS. — This species shares with O. marginicollis absence of a tooth on ventral edge of hind tibiae but differs otherwise markedly by sparseness of scaling rendering the species rather dark.