Madeiracalles terminalis (Wollaston, 1854)

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 : 133

Madeiracalles terminalis complex – at the beginning of a very young species split?

What appears morphologically clear at first glance, is not always so from a molecular perspective. An example of this is the Madeiracalles terminalis complex from Madeira. M. terminalis tolpis is slightly smaller, the elytra are more slender, the rostrum in both sexes is longer and more curved, and the terminal setae of the aedeagus are shorter and finer than in the nominotypical taxon M. terminalis . The M. terminalis complex, which also includes the morphologically distinguishable species M. tristaensis , M. cinereus and new species soon to be described (in STÜBEN in press), contains molecularly difficult to distinguish species with often extremely low p-distance values (<0.8 %). However, the chronogram based on a phylogenetic analysis of the two mitochondrial genes 16S and CO1 revealed that we are dealing with a very recent species split for Cryptorhynchinae, which, at just 0.85 million years, is similarly short to that of the laurisilva species around Silvacalles instabilis with 0.58 - 1.04 Ma ( STÜBEN & ASTRIN 2010: Fig. 1B ). Also in the latter species from the Canary Islands the morphological distinction is easy and hardly gives reason for false determinations.

Figures

Fig. 1: Lauri-Macaronesia (revised according to Künkel, 1993).