Auletobius montrouzieri Voss

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 : 115-117

Auletobius montrouzieri Voss

Figs 7, 115-119

Auletobius montrouzieri Voss, 1942: 61 .

Auletobius imitator Voss, 1922: 47 (in error, not Lea 1910). — Voss1933: 282.

DESCRIPTION. — Shiny black throughout; funicle slightly reddish if specimen somewhat teneral. Vestiture a fine, long, semierect pubescence and scattered erect setae, those on prothorax and elytra becoming more apparent in lateral view.

Head across eyes wider than prothorax, distinctly constricted laterally and dorsally a little behind eyes, weakly transversely rugose on dorsum at base, strongly rugose ventrally from base to eyes, rather coarsely and densely punctate on constriction and frons; frons wide, at least half the width of head across eyes. Eyes strongly protruding, hemispherical. Rostrum as long as prothorax in both sexes, straight, weakly sinuate (saddled) against frons, gradually but only slightly widening apicad, more distinctly so in female, with a small median groove or fovea behind antennal insertions, with a row of distinct puncta dorsally just inward from lateral margin, and with puncta laterally and ventrally towards base. Antennae reaching eyes with segment 2; segment 1 a little longer than 2, segment 2 oval or elongate elliptic, segments 3-8 thin, elongate, not widening towards club.

Prothorax as long as wide, or a fraction wider than long, distinctly less wide than head across eyes, indistinctly constricted at apex, abruptly constricted laterally at base; punctation coarser than on head.

Elytra in male subparallel, about 1.65 x longer than wide, in female distinctly wider behind middle, about 1.55 x longer than wide, broadly, separately rounded at apex, distinctly depressed at basal quarter, finely, deeply sulcate next to suture from postbasal depression to apex, with a similar fine sulcus or stria bordering lateral and apical margins. Inferolateral flange absent. Hind wings similar to those of A. constrictus Reitter as shown by Zherikhin & Gratshev (1995: 705, fig. 71), but stigmatic area with seven or so, rather equally spaced setae.

Fore-coxal cavities narrowly open, visible as a simple slit; mid-coxal cavities open to pleurites; metasternum longitudinally convex, shiny, nearly smooth; metepisternum in part sulcate, finely pubescent. Male abdomen with two fused and three free ventrites; female abdomen with three fused and two free ventrites; ventrites in both sexes minutely punctate and with fine, sparse and raised pubescence. Femora distinctly swollen, finely, sparsely punctate, lacking dorsal granules or asperities; tibiae straight, lacking a carina on dorsal edge; all tibiae with one distinct spur. Claws small, connate, finely appendiculate. Tergites pigmented, undivided along midline; tergites 3-6 with two or more unpigmented dots on either side; tergites 5-6 partly pruinose posteriorly; tergite 7 in both sexes well pigmented on little more than distal half, weakly pigmented and partly pruinose on basal half, with moderately dense, obliquely raised longish pilosity, and with 6 or more curved black setae, these stronger and longer than hairs around them.

Male: tergite 8 completely concealed under 7, weakly pigmented except for margin, with fine, short pubescence. Sternite 8 (Fig. 116) more or less divided into two strongly transverse plates, the weakly pigmented di transversely viding area distally emarginate; apodeme indistinct. Sternite 9 (Fig. 116) with long, apically strongly bending down and paralllel arms, these fused to the median apical corner of the plates of sternite 8. Aedeagus (Figs 115, 117) as long as abdomen from behind coxae to apex, around 0.65 mm long; pedon not parallel-sided, slightly constricted beyond base, broadly rounded at apex; internal sac not extending to end of apodemes, in dorsal view broadly expanded on either side to large lobes, with large, complex basal sclerite in part protruding anteriorly between jointly emarginate lobes, with ejaculatory duct inserting at base of sclerite, with fine vestiture on most of walls.

Female: sternite 8 as in Fig. 118. Genitalia as in Fig. 114, with a large bursal sclerite and one pair of vaginal pouches.

Length: 1.6-2.6 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Two syntypes deposited with the Deutsches Entomologisches Institut are present, those supposedly entrusted to Humboldt University Museum could not be found. Lectotype male, 1.9 x 0.9 mm, Neu-Caledonien, Eugnamphus [sic] montrouzieri Fauv. Type, Auletobius montrouzieri Voss , syntypus, Coll. Kraatz, DEI (antennae missing except for one scape, otherwise in reasonable though somewhat smudged specimen). Paralectotype male, same data as lectotype, DEI. Identified specimens with BPBM, IRSN, MNHN, MNHW, NZAC, SMT.D, SRFP.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. 3 males, 1 female, Ouen Toro , 8.X.1978, beating at night, J. C. Watt; 2 males, Belep Is., Art Is., Montrouzier , Coll. Fauvel; Tiéa Forest , 30 m, Plum , 23.I.1963, N. L. H. Krauss; 26 males, 24 females, Anse 21°07’S, 164°57, specimens, 30.I.2004, M Wanat; 4 males, 3 Vata , Nouméa, 30 m, 6.VIII.1979, beating, G. M. Nishida & G. females, between Mokoué and Dotio, 150-500 m, 20.III.1968, Samuelson; 1 female, same locality, 8.VIII.1979, sweeping grass T C Maa; 4 males, 2 females, same area, 22.III.1968, J. L. Gres- and Leucaena , G. A. Samuelson; 3 males, ‘ New Caledonia’, Monsitt; 2 males, 3 females, Voh, 0-20 m, N L H Krauss; 1 female, trouzier, Coll. Kraatz 97 specimens .

HOSTPLANTS. — Apparently Fabaceae ( Acacia , Leucaena ).

ETYMOLOGY. — Name in litteris of Fauvel in honour to the marist missionary X. Montrouzier and adopted by Voss.

REMARKS. — A. montrouzieri resembles A. imitator (Lea) from Tasmania closely in colour and vestiture, but the new species has a much coarser and more abundant punctation on the head, a shorter and wider shiny rostrum with a lateral row of rather large puncta while A. imitator has fine and sparse punctation on head and a longer, slenderer rostrum that is alutaceously dull with a hardly noticeable row of fine puncta. The two species differ substantially in the male genitalia. Voss (1922) reported the presence of A. imitator (Lea) from Tasmania also for New Caledonia without referring in the later paper (1942) that he had previously misidentified the species. The specimen identified by Voss (1922, 1933) from New Caledonia as A. imitator is with DEI, with part of the label saying ‘Montrouz.’, which Voss read as ‘Mortong’.