Lepidapion spartocytisi ( Marshall, 1928 )

Morris, Michael G., Sw, London & Dt, Dorset, 2011, The Apionidae (Coleoptera) of the Canary Islands, with particular reference to the contribution of T. Vernon Wollaston, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 51 (1), pp. 157-182 : 173

Lepidapion spartocytisi ( Marshall, 1928)

BRITO & OROMÍ (1986) stated that this species is abundant in Gran Canaria but they referred to fewer than 20 examples in their section on localities; however they also referred to April as the month of abundance, and numbers may vary seasonally. The weevil has been recorded from Tenerife ( GARCÍA 1991, GURREA & SANZ 2000, MACHADO & OROMÍ 2000) (the last publication gives the author of the species incorrectly as ‘Marsham’). It has also been recorded from La Palma ( GARCÍA 2003). My Gran Canarian records from Acusa (February 1997) and Tentinguada (13 November 1999) are of specimens taken with L. curvipilosum on Chamaecytisus proliferus and examples from La Yedra occurred on Argyranthemum sp. growing close to that plant.

Although Wollaston did not know this species, Marshall’s type material is placed with Wollaston’s collection in BMNH (in a drawer containing ‘supplementary’ material, as noted above). It consists of a male, labelled ‘Type’, and a female labelled ‘Co-type’.