Loxorhinus, 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 : 146-147

Genus LOXORHINUS n. gen.

Type species: L. eruditus n. sp. Catoptes-Leptopius group.

DESCRIPTION. — Head large, bulky, obliquely strigose, with parallel strigae; eyes weakly convex, coarsely facetted, transversely oval. Forehead strongly convex transversely, as wide as rostrum behind pterygia, with fine lineal fovea. Rostrum thick, wider than long, weakly saddled at base, dorsal surface above scrobes widening apicad, nearly flat; epistome usually protruding and with sharp edges and vibrissae on sides. Scrobes in dorsal view fully exposed, short, directed obliquely downward, glabrous, but squamose with oblique strigae between scrobes and eye. Scape directed towards middle of eyes, extending to prothorax, gradually thickening apicad; funicle 7-segmented, first two antennites subequal in length, 3-7 moniliform or transverse; club elongate oval, first segment as long as remainder.

Prothorax not or slightly wider than long, weakly rounded on sides, without ledge or rim at base, without an apical collar; disk even, lacking elevations or depressions, conspicuously strigose on sides, strigae parallel to each other and in right angle to those of head; ocular lobes broad, distinct, ciliate. Scutellum small, glabrous. Elytra at base in a regular concave arc, about as wide as prothorax at base, gently widening to behind humeral area, lacking humeral callus. Striae fine, with small, well-spaced puncta, stria 10 distinct only along pleurites. Interstriae much wider than striae, 3, 5 and 7 more convex, subcostate. Wings atrophied.

Legs short, robust. Femora clavate; tibiae straight, first two pairs distinctly mucronate, hind pair with small, weak mucro; corbel plate distinct, narrow, with vestiture; claws robust. Fore coxae contiguous; middle coxae rather narrowly disjunt, mesosternal process strongly oblique caudad; metepisternal suture deep on anterior half, absent or extremely fine on posterior half.

Male: tegmen with long, slender apodeme, with short, broad parameral lobes, these as long as bladal arms of sternite 9. Aedeagus as long as abdomen, its body distinctly shorter than apodemes; pedon parallel-sided, curved upwards and inwards towards dorsal surface; tectum paler, hardly wider than 1/3 the aedeagal width; internal sac extended to end of apodemes, with an inarticulated subcylindrica, subflagelliform basal sclerite, this 1/2 the length of aedeagal body, with three diverticula (lobes) at about the posterior end of basal scslerite; ejaculatory duct inserting dorsally just off the extreme base.

Female: tergite 7 emarginate at apex. Sternite 8 broaly blunt, with a median notch and a membranous median line at apical 1/4,. Heavily pigmented and setose on either side of pale midline; apodeme robust, fused to a reinforced median strip of blade. Ovipositor as long as ventrite 5, uniformly pigmented; hemisternites of equal length, styli apical, long, slender. Vagina protruding anteriorly by half length of ovipositor; bursa as long as ovipositor; sperrmatheca falciformm with a gland extension tightly against spermathecal stem, gland cylindrical, longer than spermatheca; duct 1.5 x longer than bursa, gradually widening to the thickness of spermathecal stem towards bursa, insertion point of duct near base of bursa.

DISTRIBUTION. — Belep Is, New Caledonia,Île des Pins, endemic to the area.

ETYMOLOGY. — ‘Loxorhínus’ is a Greek compound derived from ‘loxos’ = oblique, and ‘rhinus’ for weevil referring

to engraved lines on head and prothorax.

REMARKS. — A highly distinctive genus, especially because of conspicuously edged, parallel lines on the sides of the head and prothorax. One species.