Curculionoidea (weevils) of New Caledonia and Vanuatu: Basal families and some Curculionidae
Author
Kuschel, Guillermo
John T. Huber
text
Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
2008
197
99
250
journal article
978-2-85653-605-6
1243-4442
Elytrurus divaricatus
Waterhouse
Figs 40, 41
Elytrurus divaricatus
Waterhouse, 1877: 10
. —
Marshall 1938: 73
, 82. — Paulian 1945: 195, figs 37, 53.
Elytrurus maculicollis
Heller, 1916: 358
. —
Marshall 1938: 73
, 82. — Paulian 1945: 195, 196, figs 41, 42, 44, 45,
63 n.
syn.
DESCRIPTION. — Scaling brown, paler on head, sides of prothorax and basal angles of elytra, scales in strial puncta conspicuous, round, usually much larger than surrounding scales. Rostrum tricarinate, median carina broad and smooth but very low, sublateral carinae smooth or punctate, distinctly converging towards base, area between them on basal half flat or nearly so. Segment 1 of funicle shorter than 2. Sutural area of elytra squamose or partly denuded.
Length: 10.0-14.0 mm.
TYPE MATERIAL
. — 1)
E. divaricatus
:
two syntypes
present:
lectotype
male, 11.0 x
4.5 mm
, ‘Vati,
Elytrurus divaricatus
C. Waterh.
, type’, NHM;
paralectotype
female, same data,
NHML
. 2)
E. maculicollis
:
two syntypes
present:
lectotype
male, 10.5 x
4.5 mm
, ‘Neu
Hebriden
, Epi, 1911, Dr F Speiser,
maculicollis
H., Typus’,
SMT
.D;
paralectotype
female, same data,
SMT
.D.
MATERIAL EXAMINED
. —
Vanuatu
.
Ambrym
,
Epi
,
Efate
(?).
102 specimens
.
ETYMOLOGY. — The epithet ‘divaricátus’ refers to the diverging apical processes of the elytra of the
type
specimens.
REMARKS. — There are two pairs of this species in the Natural History Museum, London, one from Vati (Efate), the other from Ambrym (1925, P A Buxton), which I find identical in every respect. That this
type
form, with the slightly darkened elytral suture area and interstria 5, should occur on the two islands seems most unlikely.
Marshall (1938)
confronted
E. divaricatus
with
E. maculicollis
by bringing up three characters in the same couplet to distinguish them. As aedeagi do not show any difference and the three characters of Marshall turned out to be too unreliable, I feel confident that the synonymy is justified. Apart from the two pairs mentioned above,
40 specimens
were present for this study from S Ambrym, and 58 from Epi, none from Efate.