Cleopomiarus medius (Desbrochers des Loges, 1893)

Skuhrovec, Jiri, Gosik, Rafal, Caldara, Roberto, Tosevski, Ivo, Letowski, Jacek & Szwaj, Ewelina, 2018, Morphological characters of immature stages of Palaearctic species of Cleopomiarus and Miarus and their systematic value in Mecinini (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Curculioninae), ZooKeys 808, pp. 23-92 : 39-44

Cleopomiarus medius (Desbrochers des Loges, 1893) Figures 31, 32, 33-34, 35-36, 37, 38-40

Material examined.

13 L3 larvae, ex seed capsules of Campanula lingulata Waldst. and Kit., 26.06.2017, Staničenje, Pirot, east Serbia, leg. I. Toševski, all collected in association with adults, det R. Caldara. Accession numbers of sequenced specimens: MH558547.

Description.

Measurements (in mm). Body length: 5.10-7.30 (mean 5.67). Body width (metathorax or abdominal segments I–II) up to 2.02. Head width: 0.83-0.96 (mean 0.91).

General. Body elongated, slender, weakly curved, rounded in cross section (Fig. 31).

Colouration. Pale brown or almost yellow head (Fig. 31). All thoracic and abdominal segments from white to slightly yellow (Fig. 31).

Vestiture. Setae on body thin, slightly from orange to brown, distinctly different in length (minute to very short or long). Cuticle distinctly asperate.

Head capsule (Fig. 32). Head suboval. Frontal sutures distinct. Endocarina distinctly widened in the middle of the length. Two small stemmata (st), located close to des5. Des1-2 and des5 very long; des3 medium size; des4 short (Fig. 32). Fs1 long; fs2 absent; fs3 medium; fs4 long; and fs5 very long (Fig. 32). Les1 and les2 as long as des5; both ves very short. Epicranial area with two sensilla and three pes in line with des2.

Antennae bearing one very long conical sensorium, and basal membranous article with three sensilla almost equal in length (Fig. 33).

Clypeus (Fig. 35) approximately 4.25 times as wide as long with two almost equal in length cls: cls2 some longer than cls1, and one sensillum; anterior margin sinuate.

Mouthparts. Labrum (Fig. 35) two times as wide as long, with three piliform lms, different in the length; lms1 and lms2 located medially, and lms3 located anterolaterally; lms1 very long and reaches distinctly the labrum margin, lms2 long, and lms3 short, three times as shorter than lms1. Epipharynx (Fig. 36) with three medium sized finger-like als, and three medium to short ams in different shape; labral rods (lr) distinct, elongated. Mandibles (Fig. 36) bifid; bearing with two setae in short to medium size, piliform, and aligned longitudinally, mds1 located basally; mds2, located distinctly apically. Maxilla (Fig. 34) stipes with long stps and equal in length pfs1 and pfs2, very short to minute mbs, and two sensilla close to mbs; mala with six medium sized finger-like dms; five vms, different in length, three setae medium size, and two setae very short. Maxillary palpi: basal palpomere with one short mxps and two sensilla; distal palpomere with cuticular apical processes; length ratio of basal and distal palpomeres 1:0.8. Prelabium (Fig. 37) with one short prms; ligula with two short ligs; premental sclerite broad, ring-shaped. Labial palpi with two palpomeres; length ratio of basal and distal palpomeres 1:0.9; each of the palpomeres with one sensillum, distal palpomere with short, cuticular apical processes. Postlabium (Fig. 37) with short pms1 located basally, very long pms2 located medially and short pms3 located apically; membranous area basolaterally distinctly asperate.

Thorax. Prothorax (Fig. 38) with nine long and one very short prns; two long ps; and one short eus. Meso- and metathorax (Fig. 38) with one short prs, three long pds; one long as; two long and one very short to minute ss; one long eps; one long ps; and one short eus. Each pedal area of the thoracic segments with six different in length pda.

Abdomen. Abdominal segments I–VII (Figs 39-40) with one very short prs; two short and one long pds (order: short, long, short); one long and one minute ss; two long eps; one long ps; one long lsts; and two short eus. Abdominal segment VIII (Fig. 40) with one very short prs; three pds (order: short, long, short); one long and one minute ss; two long eps; one long ps; one long lsts; and two short eus. Abdominal segment IX (Fig. 40) with one medium long and three very short ds; two short ps; and two short sts. Abdominal segment X (Fig. 40) without seta.

Biology.

Previously, the unique biological datum on this species was reported by Weill et al. (2011), who collected adults in Syria on Michauxia campanuloides L’Hér., a small genus of Campanulaceae distributed in the Middle East, possibly a synonym of Campanula ( Crowl et al. 2014). Therefore, the observation that this species feeds on Campanula lingulata Waldst. and Kit. is unpublished. Moreover, adults were recently observed feeding on flowers of Campanula sibirica L. in eastern Serbia (I Toševski, pers. obs.), but larval development on this plant species is not confirmed. Like C. distinctus and C. graminis , larvae are seed feeders inside capsules of the host plant without producing galls.

Remarks.

This species was previously known from Anatolia, Syria and many countries of the Balkans but not from Serbia. The adults of this species are characterized by a very long rostrum in the females. This character, however, is not uncommon in the Palaearctic Cleopomiarus . For example, this character is shared with C. longirostris and C. distinctus , two other taxa presented in this paper. It is distinguishable from these species by the less globose and moderately elongate elytra, and moreover by the shape of the male and female genitalia ( Caldara and Legalov 2016). Other characters of the immatures allow easy separation of C. medius from these two species as well as from C. graminis (see keys to larvae and pupae). There are also substantial molecular differences between C. medius and other species (I Toševski, unpublished data).