Pseudomeira vitalei (Desbrochers, 1892)

Bellò, Cesare & Baviera, Cosimo, 2011, On the Sicilian species of Pseudomeira Stierlin (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), Zootaxa 3100, pp. 35-68 : 41-42

Pseudomeira vitalei (Desbrochers, 1892)

( Figs. 9 , 10 , 35 , 36 , 55 , 67 , 83 , 97 )

Peritelus vitalei Desbrochers, 1892: 7 ; Vitale, 1892: 219; Bertolini, 1899: 89; Vitale, 1900a: 19; Vitale, 1901: 426; Vitale, 1902: 2; Vitale, 1903a: 13; Vitale, 1904: 13; Ragusa, 1904: 58; Vitale, 1906a: 85.

Peritelus (Meira) vitalei: Solari & Solari, 1907: 120 ; Porta, 1932: 66.

Peritelus (Peritelus) vitalei: Vitale, 1892: 225 ; Luigioni, 1929: 873.

Peritelus (Pseudomeira) vitalei: Lona, 1937: 265 .

Pseudomeira prope vitalei: Colonnelli, 1974: 134 ; Angelini, 1986: 115.

Pseudomeira vitalei: Solari, 1955: 50 ; Magnano & Osella, 1973: 105; Abbazzi& Osella, 1992: 305; Abbazzi et al., 1995: 23; Pierotti & Bellò, 1995: 530, Pierotti & Bellò, 1998: 105; Sparacio, 1999: 138; Colonnelli, 2003: 49; Osella et al., 2005; Abbazzi & Maggini, 2009: 62.

Type locality: Sicily, Messina.

Diagnosis: Small to middle-sized (2.8–4.5 mm), elongate-oval. Epistoma impressed, clypeus almost flat. Elytra with rounded humeri, clothed by earth-brown scales and almost recumbent rather thick setae. Aedeagus with narrowly ogival apex ( Fig.67 )

Description: Small, quite robust. Elytra slightly longer than wide, clothed, like the pronotum, with more or less imbricate earth-brown scales here and there paler, and elongate more or less recumbent setae.

Rostrum transverse, more so in females, sides not or weakly converging apically. Epistoma impressed and with bulging edges; pterygia slightly protruding; clypeus narrowing in middle, with a longitudinal depression usually continuing that on frons; frons almost twice as wide as clypeus between antennae. Eyes quite large, slightly convex. Antennae robust; scape just slightly more robust than funicle, curved at basal third and progressively thickening towards apex; the firts three funicular segments with clubbed setae; segments 4–7 transverse; club robust and with the first segment widely conical.

Pronotum transverse, sides rounded, disc with punctures usually hidden by the scales.

Elytra quite convex, slightly longer than wide. Striae formed by obvious punctures, interstriae feebly convex.

Legs moderately robust; external margin of protibiae straight almost to the blunt apex.

Aedeagus in dorsal view narrowing to the apical third, then ogival toward the rounded apex, quite regularly curved in profile.

Distribution: Sicily. Indicated by Vitale (1906a) from the Messina province (Monte Ciccia, Scala, etc.), and with doubt from the Mount Pollino, Serra delle Ciavole, Calabria by Colonnelli (1974). These specimens from Calabria, studied by the first author, are actually adults of P. obscura ( Solari & Solari, 1907) .

Material: Two female syntypes are preserved in HEY with the following labels: "Messina" [white, handwritten]; "coll. Stierlin" [white, printed]; " Syntypus " [red, printed]. A total of 725 specimens were examined; genitalia of 86 were studied, and molecular analysis was made of 30 males and females.

Localities: Messina ( BAV, DOD, HEY, HOF, LUI, MAN, MMI, OSE, RAG, SOL, VIT): Acquarone ( BAV, BEL), Bordera ( SOL), Calamarà (BIN, DOD, SOL, VIT), Campo Italia ( BAV, BEL), Castanea ( BEL, BIN, OSE, PIE, SOL, VIT), Colla (OSE, RAG, SOL, VIT), Cuddudà ( VIT), Curcuraci ( BAV, BEL), Francavilla di Sicilia ( BEL, PIE), Gazzi ( SOL, VIT), Granatari ( BAV, BEL), Milazzo ( BAV, BEL), Monte Ciccia ( BEL, PIE), Roccalumera ( BEL, OSE, PIE), Scala ( RAG, SOL), Tono ( BAV, BEL).

Catania: Castiglione di Sicilia ( BAV, BEL);

Isole Eolie: Lipari, Acquacalda ( BEL, PIE), Quattrocchi ( BEL, PIE), Capistello ( BEL, BAV), San Nicola ( BAV, BEL), Terme San Calogero ( BAV, BEL); Panarea loc. Calcara ( BAV, BEL).

Ecology: Specimens have been collected by sifting leaf-litter taken beneath Olea europaea europaea L., Cistus sp. and Quercus sp. Adults occur from late winter to late spring, then they aestivate, and can be found again in autumn from the start of the rainy season until the beginning of the winter. Vitale collected several examples of this species around Messina at the beginning of January, beating bundles of freshly cut heather on a large white napkin ( Vitale, 1902). He also wrote ( Vitale, 1904) that it was quite difficult to collect them because of their cryptic colour mimicing the small Erica and soil debris.

Reproduction: Amphigonic.

Notes: Individuals from the Aeolian Islands are quite different from those collected in the surroundings of Messina, and are provisionally attributed to this species awaiting the collection of more abundant material allowing for molecular studies.

Figures

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

FIGURES 10 – 18. Habitus of Pseudomeira ssp. (scale bar: 1 mm).

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

FIGURES 36 – 44. Lateral view of Pseudomeira ssp. (scale bar: 1 mm).

FIGURES 53 – 64. Aedeagus of Pseudomeira ssp.

FIGURES 65 – 76. Apex aedeagus of Pseudomeira ssp.

FIGURES 77 – 90. Spiculum ventrale of Pseudomeira ssp.

FIGURES 91 – 104. Spermatheca of Pseudomeira ssp.