Melanterius elusus ( Casey, 1892 )

Pinzón-Navarro, Sara V., Jennings, Debbie & Oberprieler, Rolf G., 2017, Host associations of Melanterius Erichson (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cleogonini), with a diagnosis and delimitation of the genus and description of five new species, Zootaxa 4298 (1), pp. 1-77 : 34-36

Melanterius elusus ( Casey, 1892)

(Figs. 59–60)

Chaleponotus elusus Casey, 1892

Melanterius pectoralis Lea, 1899: 239 ; Anderson, 2008: 42 (syn.) Melanterius rufimanus Lea, 1915: 464 ; Pullen et al., 2014: 227 (syn.)

The oldest (valid) name of this species is based on a single specimen described by Thomas Casey, supposedly from Indiana in the U. S.A., but no further specimens were ever found in North America and the identity and relationships of the species remained obscure until Anderson (2008) discovered that it belongs in Melanterius . Its name proved to be a senior subjective synonym of pectoralis Lea ( Anderson, 2008) and also of rufimanus Lea ( Pullen et al., 2014) , the former name based on specimens from South Australia without a specific locality, the latter on a single female from Baan Baa in New South Wales . The species occurs from South Australia east- and northwards through New South Wales into southern Queensland. It is easily recognised by the male having the disc of the metaventrite laterally expanded and densely covered with elongate, flattened and apically plumose setae; in the female the disc is only flattened and laterally carries much sparser though similar setae. In both sexes the ventral tooth of the profemora is hook-like enlarged and curved distad to overhang a large round indentation in the ventral side of the femur (Fig. 59). The body of the penis (Fig. 60) is parallel-sided but gently narrowing apicad, without distinct internal sclerites but with a characteristic elongate field of spinosities.

No host information is available for the species in the literature and the ANIC. We collected it mainly on A. conferta (9 specimens) and A. deanei (6), sporadically also on A. leucocalyx , A. muelleriana and A. spectabilis ( Table 1).