Celeuthetes rufipes Heller, 2008

Kuschel, Guillermo, 2008, Curculionoidea (weevils) of New Caledonia and Vanuatu: Basal families and some Curculionidae, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 197, pp. 99-250 : 156

Celeuthetes rufipes Heller n. stat. (from subspecies)

Fig. 52

Celeuthetes rufipes Heller, 1916: 358 (as ssp. of C. hebridarum ).

DESCRIPTION. — Derm black or dark brown, femora and tibiae reddish brown, antennae and tarsi distinctly darker than femora and tibiae. Scaling grey but usually whitish on humeral angle and elytral tubercle. Setae mostly appressed in both sexes, in females however somewhat raised on declivity. Transverse sulcus at base of rostrum obsolete or obsolescent on middle, distinct on sidesagainst eyes. Elytra in male more oval than in the other two species, in dorsal view faintly incurved or sinuous on sides at base; tubercle variable in size, in male less prominent, usually shared between interstriae 5 and 7, in female occasionally two, the main one on 5 the smaller one a little before on 7; apex in lateral view weakly curved downward. Ventrite 5 in male flattened, in female with a distinct impression.

Male: aedeagus at apex very gently if at all tapering, broadly rounded, subtruncate. Spermatheca with a longish duct extension.

Length: 5.0- 6.5 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Eight syntypes present. Lectotype male, 6.0 x 3.3 mm, ‘Neu Hebriden, Vanua Lava, Banks inseln, Dr F Speiser, 1911, Typus’, SMT.D. Paratypes: same data, with NHML, NZAC, SMT.D .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Vanuatu. Vanua Lava : Sola ; Sola to Chelva River, ‘ Vanua Lava’. 42 specimens .

ETYMOLOGY. — The epithet ‘rúfipes’ is Latin for ‘red foot’, as femora and tibiae usually stand out in relation to body colour.

REMARKS. — A distinctive species known presently only from Vanua Lava, an island from the Banks Island group in the north of Vanuatu.