Torneuma (Torneuma) vastum Stüben, 2007

Colonnelli, Enzo & Osella, Giuseppe, 2009, New data on some Curculionoidea (Coleoptera: Anthribidae, Apionidae, Curculionidae) from Sardinia *, Zootaxa 2318, pp. 421-426 : 424

Torneuma (Torneuma) vastum Stüben, 2007 stat. rev.

Material examined. Sardinia: Carbonia-Iglesias prov., Iglesias, Case Marganai , 725 m, UTM 32S 463890 4355925, 1.IV.2002, L. Fancello leg., 3 ex ( CCO, CNBFVR) .

Notes. Three specimens of this taxon, recently described by Stüben (2007) as a subspecies of T. curtulum F. Solari, 1937 from two rather close localities of eastern Sardinia (Escalapiano, and Mt. Narba east of Muravera) were found at Case Marganai, near Iglesias. The known distribution of Torneuma curtulum F. Solari, 1937 is, according to our personal records ( Fig. 1), much more widespread than that given by Stüben (2007), who only knew this weevil from Domusnovas, Flumentorgius and Fluminimaggiore, all localities in western Sardinia close to the present one. A specimen of T. curtulum was collected at Mamenga, just a short distance from Case Marganai (where the above-mentioned 3 specimens were found), so the two taxa can be considered as sympatric. This implies that Torneuma vastum Stüben, 2007 (stat. rev.) is a self-standing species, and not a subspecies of T. curtulum . For the subtle characters which differentiate T. curtulum from T. vastum see Stüben (2007), and for their distribution see Fig. 1. Among the inaccuracies of the cited paper by Stüben (2007) are the descriptions of subspecies of the same species the distributional areas of which largely overlap, a circumstance that clearly weakens the even explicit provisional taxonomy proposed by this author. In the future we will publish additional changes affecting the taxonomy of the Torneumatini , which are beyond the purpose of the present paper.