Rhinoscapha vanuatensis, 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 : 128-129

Rhinoscapha vanuatensis n. sp.

Fig. 14

DESCRIPTION. — Scaling white, grey, yellowish or pinkish brown, or coppery, but no green scales anywhere, on elytra across middle of dorsum with a broad, pale band in male, with short stripes on odd interstriae in female.

Rostrum and prothorax largely as in R. meridiana . Scutellum not longer than wide. Elytra slightly but noticeably depressed at base from shoulder to shoulder, withh well-marked striae, with stria 3 joining 6, 4 joining 5, and 7 joining 8; interstriae flat, with minute setiferous puncta. Metasternum posteriorly, in front of intercoxal process of ventrite 1, lacking black bare lines.

Male: tergite 4 lacking pruinose patches; tergite 7 uniformly rounded at apex, its latero-apical area of pruinose patches with numerous larger puncta. Tegmen and aedeagus similar to those of R. meridiana , but aedeagal body with a slight waist between base and ostial area, and apex not so strongly curved downwards, and without a longitudinal depression dorsally on midline.

Female: not dissected.

Length: 17-26 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype male, 19.0 x 8.0 mm, Vilakalaka, Aoba, 27.X.1965 , MNHN. Paratypes with BPBM, NZAC, SRFP .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Vanuatu. Maewo : 1 female, Kerepei, 0-200 m, XII.1983, NLH Krauss. Aoba: 2 males, Vilakalaka, 27.X.1965. Pentecost: 2 males, 3 females, X-XI.1965; 1 male, Central, 20.II.1984, Palaud David. 9 specimens .

HOSTPLANTS. — No data.

ETYMOLOGY. — The species name ‘vanuaténsis’, a patronymic name from Vanuatu.

REMARKS. — R. vanuatensis differs from all other eupholines known to me by the way the elytral striae 3 to 8 are joined posteriorly as well as by the absence of bare metasternal lines.