Bordoniola minima, Baviera, Cosimo, Bellò, Cesare & Osella, Giuseppe, 2012

Baviera, Cosimo, Bellò, Cesare & Osella, Giuseppe, 2012, First record of the genus Bordoniola Osella, 1987 in Ecuador with description of five new species (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Raymondionyminae), Zootaxa 3455, pp. 69-80 : 71-72

Bordoniola minima sp. n.

( Figs. 5, 5 A, 6, 6A)

Type locality. Ecuador, Pichincha, Nanegalito. ( Fig. 10 )

Diagnosis. Small size body (1.05–1.10 mm), elongate, light-brown, shiny. Rostrum dorsally smooth throughout. Pronotum with spaced, round punctures. Protibia with external teeth. Elytra with second and third intervals not or just slightly more raised than striae.

Type series. Holotype male (OSL) with the following labels: [transparent label with genitalia in DHMF]; "♂" [white, printed]; “ Ecu, Pichincha, Nanegalito 2220 m ”, 11 VIII ‘08” [white, printed]; “ N 00° 0 0. 207’–W 078° 35. 450’ “ [white, printed]; “ Ecuador 2008, legg. Baviera, Bellò, Osella & Pogliano” [white, printed]; "coll. Cesare Bellò" [green, printed]; " Bordoniola minima sp. n., Holotypus, det. Osella 2011" [red, printed]; “foto Bellò 2011”[yellow, hand-written]. Paratypes: 2 males and 6 females, “ Ecu, Pichincha, Nanegalito 2220 m, 11 VIII ‘08, N 00° 00’ 2 07”– W 078° 35’ 450”, legg. Baviera, Bellò, Osella & Pogliano (BAV, BEL, OSL). Types are 9 (2 males and 7 females), genitalia of 3 (2 males and 1 female) were studied.

Holotype male: Length: 1.05 mm. Body sub-cylindrical with shining tegument (especially the rostrum), light brown, with sparse inconspicuous short, erect, bristles placed mainly at the sides. Rostrum sub-parallel, smooth dorsally, not separated from head, slightly curved beyond midlength, shining between head and antennae. Antennae rather long, scape gradually thickened; funicle with first article about twice longer than wide and more robust than the remaining articles, articles two to six sub-spherical, seventh slightly larger than sixth, club large, oval, bristly, about the same as the last four articles of the funicle. Head conical, shining. Pronotum, subcylindrical, longer (0.30 mm) than wide (0.22 mm), with the greatest width at about midlength, narrowed at both ends, with round punctures irregularly arranged. Scutellum absent. Elytra sub-parallel along the sides, almost twice as long (0.52 mm) as wide (0.28 mm), with humeri present, elytral suture visible, slightly convex, intervals two and three flat (or third interval just perceptibly more elevated) with round spots on the disk, back vanished. Legs short and sturdy, profemora widened, notched on the outer edge, hollow on the inside, protibia slightly serrate on the outer side to form a single ridge often encrusted with soil. Claws free. Procoxae separated at the base; sternites III–IV wide (III larger than IV), sternite VII smooth and flat. Aedeagus as in Figure 5 A.

Paratypes: The paratypes are almost indistinguishable from the type and variability is limited to more or less evidence of sutures and punctuation of the third elytral interval. In some specimens, the punctures of the rostrum are not entirely absent, and the spaces between the punctures of the pronotum are not always perfectly smooth. Spermatheca as in Figure 6 A.

Distribution. Known only from the type locality.

Etymology. The proposed name relates to the particularly small size of this species.

Comparative notes. Based upon the round punctures of the pronotum, the species is close to B. relicta n. sp. and B. simillima n. sp., from which it differs by its smaller size, the pronotum with more widely spaced punctures, the rostrum dorsally smooth throughout its length, the elytra with intervals not, or just, more elevated than striae two and three, the smaller punctures and the shorter bristles. A number of similarities are shared with B. simillima n. sp., (see discussion of this species), from which it differs in the characters shown in the table.

Ecology. Specimens of this species were collected by screening the litter, in a partially deforested area at the north edges of the "Bosque Nublado". Specimens were collected in conjunction with many specimens of humid forest soil Coleoptera (e.g., Staphilinidae, Scydmaenidae , Curculionidae ).

Figures

FIGURES 5 – 8. 5 — B. minima sp. n. holotype ♂ from Ecuador, Pichincha, Nanegalito—Habitus; 5 A—Aedeagus; 6 — B. minima sp. n. paratype Ƥ from Ecuador, Pichincha, Nanegalito: 4 — Habitus, 4 A—Spermatheca; 7 — B. relicta sp. n. holotype Ƥ from Ecuador, Pichincha, Chiriboga—Habitus, 7 A—Spermatheca; 8 — B. simillima sp. n. holotype Ƥ; from Ecuador, Pichincha, near Nono—Habitus, 8 A—Spermatheca.

FIGURES 9 – 11. 9 — B. otongana sp. n. holotype Ƥ from Ecuador, Pichincha, Otonga—Habitus, 9 A—Spermatheca; 10 — Ecuador, Pichincha, Otonga, type locality of B. otongana sp. n.; 11 — Ecuador, Pichincha, Nanegalito, type locality of B. minima sp. n..