Madapoderus, Biondi, Silvano, 2005

Biondi, Silvano, 2005, A new genus and species of Hoplapoderini from Madagascar (Coleoptera: Attelabidae: Apoderinae), Zootaxa 1089, pp. 37-47 : 39-43

Madapoderus n. gen.

Type species

Madapoderus pacificus sp. n., by present designation.

Diagnosis

A genus of Hoplapoderini of relatively large size (7.0– 8.6 mm, excl. rostrum); colour bright brownish red. Head behind the eyes remarkably broad in both sexes. Antennae short, legs quite short and squat. The last tarsomere, especially in the fore and hind legs of the female, very long and curved. Scutellum flat, without protuberances. Pronotum with swellings forming an inverted Y­shaped depression in the middle of each half. Elytra broad, each with five round blunt protuberances.

Systematic, biogeographic and phylogenetic considerations

The known species of Hoplapoderini from Madagascar, placed in the genus Echinapoderus , are closely related to the mainland species of the genus. This genus exists only in Africa and Madagascar.

The new genus, however, shows strong similarities to two exclusively Asian genera, Hoplapoderus and Paroplapoderus . With the species of Hoplapoderus , H. gemmatus (Thunberg, 1784) and H. minutituberosus Haq, Pajni & Gandhi, 1988 , which bear tubercles instead of spines, Madapoderus shares, among other characters, the form and the position of the elytral protuberances. The morphology of the male genitalia is also remarkably similar in these two genera. In addition, Madapoderus was found to feed on Grewia (Malvaceae) and H. gemmatus was obtained from leaf rolls of a plant belonging to the Malvaceae , Sida rhombifolia , at Dehra Dun, in India ( Gardner, 1934).

With Paroplapoderus , Madapoderus shares the broad shape of the head, the short and squat elytra and the short and stout legs. In the subgenus Erycapoderus Vo s s o f Paroplapoderus , the dorsal face of the pronotum is also similar to Madapoderus .

Among the Madagascan Apoderinae such a relationship with Asian taxa is also peculiar to the tribe Trachelophorini, as Voss reported (1926, 1939): no species of this tribe is known from African mainland, while in Madagascar there are about thirty; several other species of the Trachelophorini exist in India and in Eastern Asia.

Voss proposed an African origin for the Hoplapoderini, from the primitive genus Parapoderus Voss (placed in the tribe Apoderini). From this genus, Echinapoderus would have diverged, before the separation from the African continent of the landmass corresponding to the present Madagascar and India. Voss supposed that Echinapoderus could later have given rise to Hoplapoderus , which spread from India over Asia.

Madapoderus can be incorporated in this scenario as a derivative from an African ancestor and as a possible sister­group of Hoplapoderus . “There are certainly also taxa that evolved on Madagascar and subsequently reached other landmasses. Apart from longdistance dispersal, which could explain such dispersal events to, for example, Africa, it should also be remembered that India might have acted as a raft for species as it drifted toward Asia.” ( Gautier & Goodman, 2003).

Grewia sp. showing several leaf rolls; 12 a, b: opened leaf rolls showing cuts made by females; c: intact leaf

roll; d: adult feeding holes in leaf lamina (photos by S. Biondi).