Parallelodemas petilum Prena & Zhang

Prena, Jens & Zhang, Runzhi, 2014, A taxonomic revision of Parallelodemas Faust from South China (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Baridinae), with notes on sexually dimorphic characters, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 61 (2), pp. 105-119 : 109

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Curculionidae

Parallelodemas petilum Prena & Zhang sp. n.

Diagnosis.

Our material includes seven small specimens from three sites (3 Shaanxi, 1 Sichuan, 3 Vietnam), which form a close-nit complex of probably three species. They have bulging eyes, thoracic ventrites with bifid setae, a ventrally setose male rostrum and a slender penis with very long flagellum. Differences occur in the apical shape of the penis (Shaanxi - triangular; Sichuan - narrowly rounded; Vietnam - slightly projected) and the first abdominal ventrite (Vietnamese specimens with a pair of tubercles between the metacoxae). We describe the three specimens from Shaanxi as Parallelodemas petilum and informally assign to this complex the four others. Similar species are Parallelodemas dimetans (with nearly flush eyes) and Parallelodemas setifrons (with plumose setae).

Description.

Length 3.0-3.7 mm, width 0.8-1.0 mm; integument dark brown to nearly black, appendages partially light brown; meso- and metathoracic sternites with bi- and trifid setae, pronotum and elytron with basic vestiture of very fine setae; eyes bulging; frons and base of rostrum with recumbent setae; male rostrum 0.93 –1.12× as long as pronotum, ventrally with long setae, prorostrum 0.39 –0.40× rostral length, slightly spatulate and apically diverging in dorsal view, epistome moderately deeply notched, antennal scape with a few long setae, club 2.6 × as long as wide; female rostrum 1.14 × as long as pronotum, prorostrum 0.50 × rostral length; prosternum gradually sloping in front of coxa, basal lobe moderately notched; all femora hirsute ventrally; tarsus with tarsite 3 excised to basal third, tarsite 5 as long as 2 and distinctly protruding beyond anterior margin of 3, male mesotarsus with moderately long, clavate, outward directed setae; penis 7 × as long as wide, apex triangularly narrowed (as Parallelodemas plumosum , Fig. 14), with sclerotized flagellum almost as long as penis and apodemes combined; spermatheca with collum and nodulus forming poorly differentiated bulbous unit, ramus as long as wide (Fig. 22).

Distribution.

The species (in the strict sense) is known from the Chinese province Shaanxi.

Material examined.

Holotype: China, Shaanxi Province, Huoditang forest farm [火地塘林场], 1559 m, 33.4343 N 108.4480 E, 14.viii.2013, Jiang Chunyan [姜春燕], male, dissected, #1941160 (IZCAS). Paratypes (1 male, 1 female): same data as holotype, male, #1941162 (IZCAS 1), female, #1941161 (IZCAS 1). Other material: CHINA. Sichuan: Mount E’mei, Jiulao cave, 1800-1900 m, 1.viii.1957 [#1500865], Lu Youcai, male (IZCAS 1). VIETNAM. Cao Bang Prov.: Mount Pia Oac, 7.vi.2011, S. Lingafelter, 2 males, 1 female (IZCAS 1, JPPC 2).

Etymology.

The name is a Latin adjective for slender or gaunt.