Ceutorhynchus tatricus, Krátký, 2012

Krátký, Jiří, 2012, A new species of Ceutorhynchus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Ceutorhynchinae) from the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 52 (1), pp. 259-265 : 260-264

Ceutorhynchus tatricus sp. nov.

Type locality. Slovakia, Belianské Tatry Mts., Tatranská Kotlina env., Skalné vráta Nature Reserve, 49°13′42″N 20°16′43″E, 1560 m a.s.l.

Type material. HOLOTYPE: J, “ Slovakia bor. (6787) /5/ - Tatranská Kotlina env - Skalné vráta, 20.vi.2009 // M. Mantič lgt., alpinní louka - prosev [= alpine meadow - sifting], 49.13.42N 20.16.43E [white and printed cardboard] // HOLOTYPE, Ceutorhynchus TATRICUS , n. sp., J. Krátký des. 2011 [printed on red cardboard]” ( NMPC) . PARATYPES: “ Slovakia bor., Belanské Tatry [= Belianské Tatry Mts. ]: Holubyho dolina [= Dolina Siedmich Prameňov valley (6787d)]”: 1 ♀, 31.viii.1956, Dr. A. Hoffer leg. // stanoviště: [= locality:] 1300 m // Ing. J. Štaif det. (as “ ignitus ”) // S. Smreczynski det. 1964 (as “ Ceutorrhynchus n. sp.?”) // “ tatricus ” [handwritten label on newsprint, probably later attached by J. Štaif when he prepared description of this species] ( RBSC); 1 ♀, 1.ix.1956, Dr.A. Hoffer leg. // stanoviště: [= locality:] 1800-1850 m // Ing. J. Štaif det. (as “ tatricus sp. nov. ”) // “ Paratypus ” [printed label on red paper with black frame, probably designed by J. Štaif when he prepared description of this species] ( JFHC); 1 ♀, 3.ix.1956, Dr. A. Hoffer leg. // stanoviště: [= locality:] 1800-1850 m // Ing. J. Štaif det. (as “sp. nova?”) ( ZMPC); 1 ♀, 7.ix.1958, Dr. A. Hoffer leg. // stanoviště: [= locality:] 1500 m // E. Colonnelli det. 1999 (as “ Ceutorhynchus suturellus (Gyll.) ”) ( MMOC); 1♀, 3.ix.1956, Dr.A. Hoffer leg.// stanoviště: [= locality:] 1800-1850 m // Ing. J. Štaif det. (as “sp. nova?”) ( ZMPC) ; 1 ♀, 16.ix.1958, Dr. A. Hoffer leg. // stanoviště: [= locality:] 1700-1800 m ( JKHC) ; 1 ♀, Bujačí vrch hill (6787c), 2.ix.1956, Dr.A. Hoffer leg. // stanoviště: [= locality:] 1900-2000 m // J. Štaif det. (as “sp. nova?”) ( ZMPC).All paratypes are provided with the following label: “ PARATYPE, Ceutorhynchus TATRICUS n. sp., J. Krátký des. 2011 [printed on red paper]” .

Description. Body length: 2.22–2.49 mm.

Integument and vestiture. Coloration dorsally dark blue, pronotum sometimes blackish blue, only moderately shiny, head and pronotum rather coarsely punctured, interspaces of punctures microreticulate, matt; ventral side black, shiny, sparsely punctured; legs black with cobalt luster, tarsi black-brown, lightening apically. Rostrum black, strongly shiny, 261

2012,) 1 (52, Pragae Nationalis Musei Entomologica Acta ultimate apex brown; antennae black, brownish apically. Dorsal vestiture sparse, consisting of fine golden-brown hairs; elytral intervals with 1–2 irregular rows of hairs, which are not longer than interval’s width; vestiture of head and pronotum very sparse, hairs on sides directed towards the middle, the central ones directed forward. Ventral side with sparse, white, lanceolate scales, sometimes slightly condensed at sides of thoracic meso- and metaventrite.

Head. Rostrum 1.3 times as long as pronotum in male, 1.5 times in females, regularly curved to the apex; from base to antennal insertion finely corrugated and punctured, lacking median carina, onwards to the apex smooth and strongly shiny. Antennae inserted in middle of rostrum in females and slightly closer to the apex in male; scape nearly straight, gently clubbed; funicle 7-segmented, its segments 1 and 2 elongate, 3 and 4 twice as long as wide, 5–7 rounded; club fusiform, elongate, half as long as the funicle. Frons flat, rather strongly punctured, eyes slightly rounded, not protruding from the head outline.

Pronotum 0.7× as long as wide, widest in basal third, narrowed towards apex, base bisinuous, sides slightly rounded; disc with shallow antero-lateral impressions, dorsal sulcus interrupted in the middle, lateral tubercles very small.

Elytra 1.25–1.3 times as long as wide, widest in basal third, slightly convex in both directions, sides regularly rounded from humeral calli to very fine preapical tubercles on intervals 5–7. Striae deep, without sharp edges, serrate, with microscopic whitish scales. Intervals 1.5–2.0 times as wide as striae, moderately convex, with transverse wrinkles.

Legs fairly short and robust. Femora fusiform in the middle, finely dentate, profemur nearly edentate. Tibiae nearly straight, protibia slightly curved lateraly at the apex, weakly expanded from base to the apex, in male with a mucro at apex of inner margin of meso- and metatibia, in female without mucro. Tarsi 0.75× as long as tibiae, claws toothed.

Abdomen. Ventrites 1–2 flat, ventrite 5 in male with distinct preapical impression, in female at most with barely visible elongate impression; apical edge with a ring of white scales.

Aedeagus rectangular, truncate apically ( Fig. 4 ).

Variability. Here described specimens do not show significant differences. Small variability is only in coloration of pronotum, which can be from dark blue to blackish blue, as mentioned above.

Differential diagnosis. Ceutorhynchus tatricus sp. nov. is most similar to two species occurring in central Europe: C. ignitus (Fig. 3) and C. merkli (Fig. 2). It differs from both these relatives particularly in the shape of aedeagus ( Figs. 4–6 ), distinctly more matt surface of the upper side of body, slightly more convex elytral intervals, rostrum lacking fine median carina in basal half, antennae inserted in male apicad of the midpoint of rostrum, and head punctured as coarsely as pronotum. Ceutorhynchus merkli has longer and whitish dorsal vestiture of elytra (brownish in C. tatricus sp. nov.), while C. ignitus has slightly but distinctly wider elytra.

The new species can hardly be confused with other species placed near C. ignitus and occurring in central and eastern Europe: C. barbareae Suffrian, 1847 is distinctly larger, C. suturellus Gyllenhal, 1837 and C. pervicax Weise, 1883 have pronotum more coarsely punctured and elytra with post-scutellar spot of white scales, and C. pandellei C. Brisout, 1869 is distinctly slimmer, elongate and its pronotum lacks lateral tubercles. The recently described C. coeruleus Colonnelli, 2005 from Turkey is also very similar, especially in the shape of aedeagus, but has elytra distinctly more shiny with more saturated blue colour; C. coeruleus is also distinctly smaller ( COLONNELLI 2005). The also recently described C. cyaneotinctus Colonnelli, 2005 from the Pyrenees differs distinctly in the shape of aedeagus, black disc of pronotum and greenish colour of elytra. Its body outline is similar to that of C. ignitus ( COLONNELLI 2005) . The key to all central European species related to C. ignitus , having bluish elytra with intervals lacking raised setae and striae devoid of scales, and toothed tarsal claws, is given below.

Etymology. The species is named after its area of distribution, the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia.

Bionomics. The host plant of C. tatricus is unknown. The females collected by Dr. Hoffer in the 1950s were most likely swept during his exploration of the Belianské Tatry in search for Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea. Later Ing. J. Štaif made a few attempts to find more specimens, but without success. The only known male was collected by sifting in the alpine meadow under stones in the Skalné vráta Nature Reserve. I visited the locality several times and found just a few potential host plants for Ceutorhynchus species. I carefully screened all potential host plants and even reared weevil larvae found on them, but I did not find C. tatricus among them, and thus its host plant remains unknown. Potential host plants are summarized as follows.

Erysimum hungaricum Zapal. (= E. wahlenbergii Asch. et Engl. ) is quite abundant throughout the southern part of the Belianské Tatry from 1300 to 2000 m a.s.l. The plant is dominant and forms almost monoculture stand at the locality, where the male holotype of C. tatricus sp. nov. was collected. Another potential host plant could be Arabis alpina L., but on this plant I discovered only abundant population of distantly related C. hutchinsiae Tempère, 1945 , which was a new finding of this species in the Carpathians and a newly observed host association ( BENEDIKT et al. 2010). Most of the Hoffer’s sites of C. tatricus sp. nov. in the Tatras are occupied by Biscutella laevigata ssp. austriaca (Jord.) Mach. -Laur., which was found by me to be infested with the larvae of another, still unidentified and probably unnamed species very close to C. hutchinsiae . Among other crucifer plants present in the type localiy, which could eventually host C. tatricus , there are some Arabis , Cardamine and Cardaminopsis species , though I did not ever find any weevil on them. The other plants examined in the locality are either too fine to host the larvae of the weevil like C. tatricus , or they occur at higher or lower elevations than the localities of C. tatricus ; therefore, they are not considered here as its potential host plants.

Distribution. The species is known only from the southern part of the Belianské Tatry in northern Slovakia.

Figures

Figs. 4–6.Aedeagus. 4 – Ceutorhynchus tatricus sp. nov., holotype; 5 – C. merkli Korotyaev, 2001 from Slovakia, Štúrovo (coll. JKHC); 6 – C. ignitus Germar, 1824 from Bohemia, Kunětická hora (coll. JKHC).