Elytroteinus, Marshall, 1920

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 : 213

Genus ELYTROTEINUS Marshall

Elytroteinus Marshall, 1920: 276 (new name for Pteroporus Fairmaire 1881 (non Schoenherr 1843)).

Pteroporus Fairmaire, 1881: 307 (type species P. subtruncatus Fairmaire ).

DESCRIPTION. — A genus of flightless species from the Pacific islands characterised by having a forehead with a lateral furrow beside eyes, a pronotum with small, shallow, setiferous or squamiferous puncta to appear rather smooth, no scutellum, granulate elytra with obsolescent stria 10, a bare rostral canal, a cavernous mesosternal receptacle, a ventrite 2 at least as long as 3 and 4 combined and at distinctly different level, subsulcate femora, multicarinate, uncinate tibiae, and small, slender, subdivaricate claws.

ETYMOLOGY. — ‘Elytrotéinus’ is a Greek compound derived from the noun ‘élytron’ for a case or cover, and the verb ‘teino’ for stretch or expand.

REMARKS. — Two species are described, one known from a wide area in the Pacific, the other from the Solomon Islands ( Zimmerman 1938), and a third species from Fiji is new. The latter, although outside the faunal area of this study, is described to confirm that the genus Elytroteinus is native to the Pacific islands on and around the Fijian area.