Lyalia Alonso-Zarazaga & Perrin

Alonso-Zarazaga, Miguel A. & Perrin, Helene, 2011, Two new genera of Nanophyidae with six desmomeres (Coleoptera, Curculionoidea), ZooKeys 125, pp. 35-50 : 36-38

Lyalia Alonso-Zarazaga & Perrin gen. n.

Type species.

Lyalia curvata Alonso-Zarazaga & Perrin sp. n. Gender feminine.

Description.

With the characters of the tribe Nanophyini as considered in Alonso-Zarazaga (1989). Size large: 3.1-4.1 mm

Integument polychrome, varying from black to testaceous or reddish, mostly on elytra, but these not fasciate.

Vestiture of whitish, yellowish or dark (black, piceous) piliform scales, on elytra banded rather than fasciate, scales directed obliquely towards outer margin in the interstriae 1-5 (except the line closest to the suture, being parallel mostly on basal half), parallel to the striae on interstria 6 and oblique towards sutural margin on interstriae exterior to 6. Tibial comb setae dark. Specialized setae on odd elytral interstriae, pronotum, head, and legs.

Rostrum more or less cylindrical, long: 1.35-1.47 × as long as pronotum in male, 1.64-1.86 × in female, weakly to moderately curved, in side view prorostrum visibly tapered in males, less so in females. Epistome with a median triangular tooth, flanked on each side by a small rounded notch; in the female of Lyalia curvata , epistome convex and asymmetrical, tooth displaced to the right. Mandibles with one external seta. Mentum oblong-rhombic, with a small median seta on each side; postmentum with one pair of setae just behind prementum.

Antennae with 6 desmomeres; scape slightly claviform in the apical fourth, 1.30-1.45 × as long as funicle, not reaching level of front margin of eye in resting position; funicle clearly longer than club, 3rd desmomere oblong, at least 1.15 × as long as 4th, 3rd club segment hardly longer than 1st and 2nd together, and a little asymmetrical in males.

Head. Frontal angle flat in side view. Eyes medium-sized, not touching on frons, frons as wide as 0.35-0.41 × rostral apex.

Elytra short, subcordate-triangular, maximum width across humeral calli, outer basal angles marked, separately rounded at apex, leaving an obtuse sutural angle; 8th elytral interstria crenulate-keeled along the basal 3rd-4th, continuous across humeral callus, reaching more or less level of half way along metasternum; 10th elytral stria complete, at apex joining 1+10, 2+9, 3+8, 4+5, 6+7 (usual arrangement in the family). Second and third striae more or less curved to the suture in the basal third, 2nd and 3rd interstriae accordingly reduced in width, 4th widened.

Ventral areas. Mesocoxae separated 0.65-0.78 × width of a mesocoxa and 0.65-0.85 separation of metacoxae. Abdomen with suture I weak, limited to a short streak on each side, or absent, with suture IV present, but not functional, in males; 5th ventrite shorter than distance between hind metacoxal margin and suture II; suture IV absent in females in the median third. Male pygidium normal, moderately convex.

Legs. Femora incrassate, with 1+2-3 teeth; hind femora exceeding elytral apex by a short distance. All three pairs of tibiae mucronate in male, unarmed in female. Tarsi robust, first tarsomere apically concave and acutely angled.

Genitalia and terminalia. Male: Penis () depressed, pedon with sides more or less parallel, apex more or less ogival to triangular, symmetrical. Temones shorter than pedon. Tectum thin, rather inconspicuous. Endophallus with denticles in the median part and a long basal flagellum exceeding a little the total length of penis (temones in cluded), basal part of flagellum inflated, remainder slightly undulate to apically curved, apex more or less widely funnel-shaped. Two frena visible in Lyalia curvata . Tegmen with dorsal plate slightly notched medially at apex, bearing a high number of long apical setae (18-24) on each lobe; fenestrae and linea arquata marked, continuous at middle; prostegium projected cephalad in an angle, narrowly rounded at apex, with two paramedian careniform reinforcements, protruding on the ventral face and beyond apical margin of prostegium (L. curvata). Spiculum gastrale with manubrium longer than arms, these without wings (sclerotized pouches in Lyal and Curran 2003).

Female: Ovipositor slightly sclerotized; gonocoxites very obliquely ending cephalad, more strongly sclerotized at apex, baculi wide, styli elongate, apically setose; vagina with several weak, distant teeth; bursa copulatrix without sclerotizations; spermatheca of the usual kind in the family, with a long cornu.

Etymology.

This genus is named in honour of our good colleague and friend Dr Christopher H.C. Lyal (Natural History Museum, London), one of the best world experts on weevils ( Coleoptera Curculionoidea ), having recently published a revision of two Oriental genera (Lyal and Curran 2003).

Included species.

This genus includes for the moment three nominal species in the Oriental Realm, two of them having been wrongly placed in the Afrotropical genus Ctenomerus Schoenherr, 1843: Ctenomerus lagerstroemiae G.A.K. Marshall, 1923 (Java), a synonym, and Ctenomerus albolineatus Pajni & Bhateja, 1982 (India: Assam). Two others have been found in the collections of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris) by the senior author: Nanophyes robustus Pic, 1921 (described from Java) and one undescribed species in the Barbier collection, coming from Vietnam.