Melanterius psittacoides, Pinzón-Navarro & Jennings & Oberprieler, 2017

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 : 14

The M. costatus group

This group may be characterised by the presence of conspicuous, pale but more or less unicolorous scales on the elytra, which are distributed in irregular clusters or bands on the interstriae, and a normally placed uncus on the pro- and mesotibiae of the females. It includes the two species described by Lea (1899) in Melanteriosoma , M. costatus and M. inconspicuus , as well as M. aberrans Lea, 1899 , M. arenaceus Lea, 1928 , M. costipennis Lea, 1905 , M. lamellatus Lea, 1913 , M. rufus Lea, 1928 , M. squamipennis Lea, 1928 , M. tibialis Lea, 1928 and M. vinosus Pascoe, 1872 , and we here describe two new ones in it, M. psittacoides sp. n. and M. pungalinae sp. n. Similar elytral scales occur in some species of the M. maculatus group as well as in several species of Lybaeba . Other Melanterius species have either fine setae on the elytra or no vestiture at all, whereas other Lybaeba species are covered in dense and often bi- or tricolorous scales. Host records are available for seven species placed in this group.