Melanterius acaciae Lea, 1899

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 : 9

Melanterius acaciae Lea, 1899

( Figs. 1–2 , 14–16 )

Melanterius acaciae Lea, 1899: 221 ; Lea, 1915: 464

Melanterius caledonicus Lea, 1928: 129 ; Pullen et al., 2014: 227 (syn.)

This species was described from Forest Reefs in New South Wales and occurs widely in south-eastern Australia. It is also present in New Caledonia, from where it was described as M. caledonicus . It is shiny black with only a faint vestiture of fine setae, which is diagnostic on ventrites 3 and 4 but also (particularly in comparison with M. servulus and M. maculatus , which share the character of contiguous procoxae with M. acaciae ) on the pronotum and elytra. The penis of M. acaciae ( Figs. 15–16 ) is also distinctive, the body being narrower and with an attenuate, narrowly truncate apex and a pair of small, indistinct apical endophallic sclerites and a larger, caliper-like sclerite at the base.

Lea (1899) originally recorded Acacia decurrens as a host of M. acaciae , but his type material of acaciae includes specimens of both M. acaciae and M. maculatus (E. C. Zimmerman, in litt.) and it is evident that this host record applies to M. maculatus instead. New (1979) reported collecting M. acaciae from A. dealbata and New (1983) rearing it from seeds of A. baileyana , but re-examination of the specimens showed them to be M. maculatus too, and host specificity tests confirmed that M. acaciae does not oviposit on A. baileyana and A. dealbata ( Donnelly, 1992) . It was first reared from its true main host, A. melanoxylon , in 1976 by M. van den Berg (van den Berg, 1982), and in 1980 T. Auld reared it from seeds of A. elongata ( Auld , 1983, 1989). In New Caledonia it was collected (and appears to develop) on A. simplex (recorded on the labels as A. laurifolia ), a perennial climber native to the western Pacific region. The species was released against A. melanoxylon in 1986 in South Africa ( Donnelly , 1992; Dennill et al., 1999), where it established slowly but now controls A. melanoxylon very successfully ( Dennill et al. 1999; Impson et al., 2011). In our study we collected M. acaciae from A. glaucocarpa as well, possibly an additional host ( Tables 1, 2). The single specimen found on A. baileyana at Kyeamba ( Table 1) is regarded as a concincidental association ( Table 2). A series of five specimens in the ANIC, collected in 1986 by C. Reid at Kioloa in New South Wales on A. longifolia , and seemingly together with a similar series of M. ventralis , is not regarded as representing a host record.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 13. Diagnostic structures of some Melanterius species. 1 – 8: apex of left protibia, odd numbers – males, even numbers – females (arrows showing point of origin of uncus); 1 – 2: M. acaciae Lea; 3 – 4: M. castaneus Lea; 5 – 6: M. maculatus Lea; 7 – 8: M. servulus Pascoe. 9: ventrites of M. ventralis Lea, male (arrows showing lobed posterior margin of ventrite 1 and setose median area of ventrites 3 – 5). 10: antennal funicle and club of M. ventralis (arrow showing flattended ventral surface of club). 11 – 13: elytral declivities (arrows showing arrangement of costate interstriae); 11: M. castaneus; 12: M. maculatus; 13: M. servulus.

FIGURES 14 – 19. Dorsal view of habitus and aedeagi of Melanterius acaciae Lea and M. antennalis Lea. 14 – 16: M. acaciae; 14: male (South Africa, Witelsbos); 15: aedeagus (New South Wales, Kangaroo Valley); 16: aedeagus (New Caledonia, Noumea). 17 – 19: M. antennalis; 17: male (New South Wales, Araluen); 18: underside of rostrum, showing lateral flanges (New South Wales, Gibraltar Range NP); 19: adeagus (New South Wales, Gibraltar Range NP).