Cossonus ochreipennis, Colonnelli, 2014

Colonnelli, Enzo, 2014, Apionidae, Nanophyidae, Brachyceridae and Curculionidae except Scolytinae (Coleoptera) from Socotra Island, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54, pp. 295-422 : 306-309

Cossonus ochreipennis sp. nov.

( Figs 7, 9, 10 )

Type material. HOLOTYPE: J ( NMPC),‘ Yemen,Socotra island // Al Haghier Mts. // Skant Mt. env. 1450 m // 12°34.6′N, 54°01.5′E // J. Bezděk leg. 12-13.xi.2010 ’. PARATYPES: 37 JJ 39 ♀♀, same label data as holotype (63 NMPC, 13 ECRI) ; 8 JJ 6 ♀♀, ‘ Yemen, Socotra Island, // Al Haghier Mts. , // Skant Mt. env., 1450 m, // 12°34.6′N, 54°01.5′E, // L. Purchart leg., 12-13.xi.2010 // Alcohol 70% + acetic acid’ (11 NMPC, 3 ECRI) ; 1 J 1 ♀, ‘ Socotra Is. ( YE) // Al Haghier Mts. Skant Mt. env. // 12°34.6′N, 54°01.5′E, 1450 m // Jan Batelka leg. 12-13.xi.2010 ’ ( JBPC) ; 5 JJ 8 ♀♀, ‘ Yemen, Socotra Island // Dixam plateau // Firmihin ( Dracaena forest) // 12°28.6′N, 54°01.1′E, 490 m // Jiří Hájek leg. 15-16.xi.2010 ’ (9 NMPC, 4 ECRI) ; 3 JJ 9 ♀♀, ‘ Socotra Is. ( YE) Dixam plateau // Firmihin ( Dracaena forest) // 12°28.6′N, 54°01.1′E, 490 m // Jan Batelka leg. 15-16.xi.2010 ’ (9 JBPC, 3 ECRI) ; 3 ♀♀, ‘ Yemen, Socotra island //

Dixam plateau 14-15.vi.2012 // Firmihin, Dracaena woodland // 12°28.6′N, 54°01.1′E, 490 m’, ‘ Socotra expedition 2012 // J.Bezděk, J. Hájek, V.Hula, // P.Kment, I. Malenovský,// J. Niedobová & L.Purchart leg.’ ( NMPC) ; 2JJ 1♀, ‘ Yemen, Soqotra Is. // Homhil protected area // 28-29/xi. 2003, 364 m // N 12°34′27″, E 54°18′32″ // [GPS]; David Král lgt.’, ‘ Yemen - Soqotra 2003 // Expedition; Jan Farkač, // Petr Kabátek & David Král’ ( NMPC); 6 JJ 7 ♀♀, ‘ Yemen, Socotra Island // Wadi Zirik, 650-670 m // N 12°29′35″, E 53°59′28″ // 16.vi.2009 // L. Purchart lgt.’ (10 NMPC, 2 BMNH, 1 ECRI); 4 JJ 2 ♀♀, ‘ Yemen, Socotra Island // Firmihin, 400-500 m // N 12°28′27″, E 54°0′54″ // 22-25. vi.2009 // L. Purchart & J. Vybíral lgt.’ (5 NMPC, 1 ECRI) .

Description. Male holotype. Body length: 4.6 mm. Piceous, shining, bare, femora brown, elytra ochreous-red with their extreme base little darker, antennae, tibiae and tarsi honey-red ( Fig. 7 ).

Head. Rostrum twice as long as wide at its widest point, 1.54 times as long as head and 0.57 as long as pronotum, abruptly dilated at antennal insertion which is situated immediately basad of middle, slightly curved and a little tapering towards apex in lateral view, dorsum sparsely minutely punctured and somewhat sulcate on basal half. Scrobes moderately large, deep, smooth, and reaching lower margin of rostrum at distance from eyes a little more than diameter of an eye. Antennae relatively thin; scape scarcely curved at base and moderately clubbed in apical half; funicular antennomere I hardly broader than remaining ones and little longer than wide; antennomere II longer than wide; antennomeres III to VII moniliform and progressively more transverse towards club; club large, fusiform and about as long as four preceding antennomeres. Head with moderately dense punctures up to convex, impunctate and shiny vertex. Space between eyes with large central sulcus. Eyes rather large, subelliptical and moderately protruding from head convexity.

Pronotum as long as wide, a little constricted at apex, rather densely punctured except apical margin which is impunctate, glossy and strictly appressed on head; disc little convex on sides of middle sulcus and here with punctures not much smaller and sparser than those on rest of disc, central shallow sulcus large and with irregular low middle keel; sides moderately curved, maximum pronotal width just basad of middle; basal margin barely bisinuate and much wider than truncate apical one. Scutellum quite large, black.

Elytra 1.93 times longer than wide, maximum width at humeri, sides straight and hardly converging toward apical declivity. Striae sulciform, with large deep subquadrate punctures. Intervals almost flat, barely wider than striae and impunctate.

Legs. Femora clubbed, their dorsal margin slightly more curved than ventral one, profemora moderately larger than meso- and metafemora; tibiae slightly bisinuous, protibiae with internal margin more strongly incised than in preceding species; tarsi narrow, tarsomere III not bilobed.

Ventral side with rather dense round deep punctures, metaventrite sulcate, abdominal ventrite I shallowly depressed.

Variability. All specimens are very similar to the holotype. Some size variation of the tiny punctures of pronotal smooth discal areas occurs; a few of the specimens have a poorly-visible trace of a longitudinal groove on the dorsum of the rostrum, and some others have suture and apex of elytra slightly darker than the rest of elytral surface. Rostrum of females is 2.65 times longer than wide and widest at antennal insertion which is situated about at basal third, and apical two thirds of rostrum are only slightly more dilated than basal third.

Male genitalia. Aedeagus and spiculum gastrale as depicted in Figs 9 and 10 .

Body length 3.4–5.2 mm.

Differential diagnosis. Elongate rostrum is clearly dilated on apical half in males and only slightly so in females. Finely punctured smooth discal areas, and impunctate elytral intervals make this species rather different from any of the described African Cossonus with piceous integument and rusty-red elytra. The only two species with reddish elytra and blackish pronotum occurring in the nearby countries are C. tarsalis Hustache, 1936 from Ethiopia, and C. procerus Gerstaecker, 1871 from Tanzania. The latter is however much larger (7.5–8.0 mm) than the new species and, besides its carinate rostrum, also has reddish abdomen and legs ( GERSTAECKER 1871). Cossonus tarsalis is readily separated from C. ochreipennis sp. nov. by profemora of males densely pubescent along the internal margin, base of pronotum strongly bisinuous, the small sunken scutellum, and elytra always with piceous suture and lateral intervals ( HUSTACHE 1936b). According to their descriptions ( WALKER 1859, MARSHALL 1938), the new species appears more similar to C. disciferus ( Walker, 1859) from Ceylon and to C. divisus Marshall, 1938 from southern India and Ceylon. Cossonus divisus differs by having markedly shorter rostrum with strongly dilated apical half and central impression of pronotum not carinate. Cossonus disciferus has the rostrum elongate as in C. ochreipennis sp. nov., but is distinguished by the apex of the rostrum and legs red-brown instead of piceous, suture and apex of elytra black, and median impression of pronotum interrupted in the middle and not carinate. This species was illustrated by WRANIK (2003: pl. 178, fig. h) as ‘ Cossonus sp. ’

Etymology. The dirty yellowish colour of the elytra of the new species suggested its name; the Latin adjective ochreipennis (- is, - e) means ʻwith ochre wingsʼ.

Collection circumstances. Most of the specimens were collected under bark of freshly fallen Dragon’s blood trees ( Dracaena cinnabari Balf. f., Asparagaceae ), together with the tenebrionid Corticeus socotranus Purchart & Schawaller, 2012 (J. Hájek, pers. comm.).

Distribution. Endemic to Socotra Island.

Figures

Figs 6–10. 6, 8 – Cossonus krali sp. nov. 6 – habitus of the holotype; 8 – aedeagus of a paratype in dorsal view. 7, 9–10 – Cossonus ochreipennis sp. nov. 7– habitus of the holotype; 9 – aedeagus of a paratype in dorsal view; 10 – spiculum gastrale of the same.