Neobruchidus Johnson and Romero

Johnson, C. D. & Romero-Napoles, J., 2006, Neobruchidius lovie, new genus and new species from Latin America (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae), Zootaxa 1123, pp. 57-68 : 61-62

Neobruchidus Johnson and Romero , New Genus

Small to large bruchids in the tribe Acanthoscelidini with the following morphological characteristics:

Head. Frons usually with median, glabrous line or carina extending from frontoclypeal suture to vertex, frons sometimes smooth, sometimes with granulate glabrous area on vertex with shallow pits on dorsomedial surface; eyes usually about as wide as or slightly wider than frons, sometimes eyes up to 2 times wider than frons; posterior margin of eye usually protruding from adjacent surfaces, sometimes merging smoothly into contour of head; antennae occasionally sexually dimorphic, distal segments usually slightly eccentric; antennae usually extending to humerus, sometimes varying to one­third length of elytra.

Prothorax. Disk subcampanulate to conical, usually with coarse punctures; cervical sulcus on anterolateral margin; lateral carina varying from obsolete to incomplete to strong and extending almost to coxal cavity; usually short median impressed line on median basal lobe; procoxae contiguous at apices.

Scutellum. Varying from small to large and transverse to elongate, usually quadrate; bifurcate at apex, covered with dense hairs.

Elytra. About twice as long as broad; striae moderately to deeply impressed, subequal at base; often striae 3 and 4 closer to each other at base; striae sometimes abbreviated at base, often with small spines at base.

Hind Leg. Femur usually expanded medially to about width of or wider than width of hind coxa; femur armed with one large subapical acuminate spine without additional smaller spines; mucro 0.05–1.3 times as long as tarsomere 1; usually without (but occasionally with) a deep sinus at the base of an elongated dorsal coronal spine at apex of hind tibia (fig. 2).

Abdomen. Usually with sterna unmodified, sternum 1 occasionally with round patch of white hairs or with medial round or elongate depression or both, sometimes with elongate hairs; ventral surface of abdomen sometimes arcuate; pygidium ranging from evenly rounded to strongly convex; apical margin of last sternum slightly to strongly emarginate to receive apex of pygidium, apical margin of last sternum of females usually without emargination.

Male Genitalia. Usually without dorsal hood at apex; armature of internal sac ranging from only a lining of spicules to large spines; without hinge sclerites; lateral lobes cleft for a part of their length.

Type species of the Genus. Neobruchidius lovie Johnson & Romero.

Diagnosis. Neobruchidius , may be separated from Acanthoscelides using the following characters: a) femur armed with one large subapical acuminate spine without additional smaller spines, b) femur usually expanded medially to about width of or wider than width of hind coxa, c) mucro 0.05–1.3 times as long as tarsomere 1.

The terminology of the parts of the male genitalia follows that proposed by Kingsolver (1970) and Romero & Johnson (2000), the terminology of the parts of the hind leg follows that of Johnson & Kingsolver (1973).

Discussion. According to Borowiec (1987) and Johnson (1983, 1990) Acanthoscelides and Bruchidius have been used as genera into which species are placed that do not fit within the limits of other genera. For exmaple Sulcobruchus , Conicobruchus , Megabruchidius , Kingsolverius , Decellebruchus and Salvibruchus were separated from Bruchidus. In Acanthoscelides genus is occurring the same process, Abutiloneus use to be part of this later genus and we continue with the clarification of the genus. At least the new genus Neobruchidius is probably, it may be separated from Acanthoscelides using the following characters mentioned in the generic diagnois above. The strongest character is the first one.