Lixus brevirostris, BOHEMAN, 1835

Stüben, Peter E., Schütte, André & Astrin, Jonas J., 2021, Barcoding and interspecific relationships of Macaronesian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 71 (1), pp. 127-135 : 131-132

Lixus brevirostris – molecular discovery of new species features

The ‘Lista/2009’ mentions Lixus brevirostris only for the islands of La Palma, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura. From the latter island, the first author is currently describing a new species (Stüben in prep.). He reported also the L. brevirostris for La Gomera ( STÜBEN 2011) and later also for El Hierro ( STÜBEN 2018a). The species is ubiquitous and not rare on Chenopodiaceae .

However, the analysis of the mitochondrial CO1 gene leaves no doubt that there are 2 or 3 (sub)species! On the one hand, there are two main clades (p-distance = 6.5 % - 7 %) including the specimens from Gran Canaria and Tenerife, and on the other hand those from La Gomera and La Palma/El Hierro, with populations from the latter two islands forming another subclade in the mitochon-

STÜBEN, P. E.; SCHÜTTE, A. & ASTRIN, J. J.: Barcoding Macaronesian Weevils after hybridization and, as a consequence, perhaps a new species?

drial tree (with p-distances of 5.3 %). Indeed, in a first morphological comparison, the specimens from the three westernmost islands show a broader rostrum in both sexes than the specimens from different sites in Gran Canaria (differences in the shape of the aedeagus can also be identified). The problem: Unfortunately, we do not yet have any knowledge of the type material of Lixus brevirostris BOHEMAN, 1835 (nor of its synonyms) from the south of Spain, in order to be able to make appropriate assignments if necessary. Therefore, in the near future the first author intends to carry out a corresponding revision of the Canarian Lixus brevirostris species complex with new descriptions of the extensive material already available to him.