Pseudomeira pfisteri ( Stierlin, 1864 )

Bellò, Cesare & Baviera, Cosimo, 2011, On the Sicilian species of Pseudomeira Stierlin (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), Zootaxa 3100, pp. 35-68 : 38

Pseudomeira pfisteri ( Stierlin, 1864)

( Figs. 3 , 29 , 78 , 92 )

Cathormiocerus pfisteri Stierlin, 1864:150 .

Peritelus pfisteri: Rottenberg, 1871: 227 ; Vitale, 1906a: 85.

Peritelus (Meira) pfisteri: Seidlitz, 1868 : 31,32; Bertolini, 1872: 168; Marseul, 1872: 91; Stierlin, 1883: 600; Bertolini, 1899: 89; Ragusa, 1904: 59; Porta, 1932: 63; Lona, 1937: 266.

Meira pfisteri: Heyden et alii, 1883: 151; Vitale, 1890: 39; Vitale, 1892: 225; Vitale, 1900a: 19; Vitale, 1904: 13.

Peritelus (Peritelus) pfisteri: Seidlitz, 1865: 291 ; Luigioni, 1929: 873.

Peritelus (Pseudomeira) pfisteri: Péricart, 1963: 40 .

Pseudomeira pfisteri: Pierotti & Bellò, 1994: 116 ; Abbazzi et al., 1995: 23; Pierotti & Bellò, 1998: 105; Sparacio, 1999: 138; Colonnelli, 2003: 48; Osella et al., 2005; Pierotti, 2006: 25; Pierotti, 2009: 481; Abbazzi & Maggini, 2009: 62.

Type locality: Sicily, Palermo, Monte Pellegrino ( Fig. 107 ).

Diagnosis: Small (3.4–3.6 mm), elongate-subcylindrical. Epistoma hardly noticeable, clypeus slightly gibbous and longitudinally impressed in middle. Elytra clothed with brown scales and clubbed or spatulate, recumbent setae.

Description: For a redescription of the lectotype see Pierotti (2009).

Distribution: Known only from the type locality.

Material: A total of 88 females were examined. Genitalia of 4 were studied, and molecular data were obtained from 2.

Localities: Palermo (LET, ROT): Monte Pellegrino 400 m ( BAV, BEL, MCT, PIE, SOL). All literature records from localities other than the above refer to different species.

Ecology: Adults are found from the beginning of the winter to the end of the spring, only a few aestivating individuals can be found in autumn. P. p f i s t e r i has often been collected by us, together with P. exigua , sifting leaf litter under Rubus sp. and Olea europaea L. var. sylvestris Brok. in the grazed land of Monte Pellegrino at 400 m a.s.l. ( Fig. 107 ). In November P. p fi s te r i is common, whereas it is uncommon in March.

Reproduction: Parthenogenetic.

Notes: The lectotype is in HEY and the paralectotype in STI. As in the case of P. exigua above, although the lectotype bears only the Stierlin handwritten label “Sicil”, we think that the type locality is Palermo, Monte Pellegrino for the same reasons mentioned above for P. exigua .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 9. Habitus of Pseudomeira ssp. (scale bar: 1 mm).

FIGURES 27 – 35. Lateral view of Pseudomeira ssp. (scale bar: 1 mm).

FIGURES 77 – 90. Spiculum ventrale of Pseudomeira ssp.

FIGURES 91 – 104. Spermatheca of Pseudomeira ssp.

FIGURES 107 – 108. 107: Palermo, Monte Pellegrino, type locality of Pseudomeira exigua (Stierlin, 1861) and Pseudomeira pfisteri (Stierlin, 1864). 108: Palermo, Madonie mountain, Piano Battaglietta type locality of Pseudomeira petrensis sp. n.