Host associations of Melanterius Erichson (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cleogonini), with a diagnosis and delimitation of the genus and description of five new species
Author
Pinzón-Navarro, Sara V.
Author
Jennings, Debbie
Author
Oberprieler, Rolf G.
text
Zootaxa
2017
4298
1
1
77
journal article
32536
10.11646/zootaxa.4298.1.1
e2c6a7ae-f2f7-45cb-a9c0-e885dd74927c
1175-5326
840354
6F38752A-0669-488E-879B-8881EC80ECF2
Melanterius inconspicuus
(
Lea, 1899
)
(
Figs. 30–31
)
Melanteriosoma inconspicuum
Lea, 1899
: 268
This
species was described from Glen Innes in
New
South Wales
and is also recorded from
Victoria
(a specimen in the
ANIC
from
Noble Park in Melbourne
), and we collected two specimens in
Queensland
. A female from Sydney in the
ANIC
, identified as
Melanterius uniseriatus
by Lea, represents the same species, and the synonymy of
uniseriatus
with
costatus
(see above) therefore needs re-evaluation. The species is very similar to
M. costatus
, sharing the conspicuous ventral carina between the meso- and metacoxae, but it differs in being slightly smaller and having interstriae 3 and 5 not distinctly costate and no rows of conspicuous black setae along the elytral suture.
FIGURES 28–31.
Dorsal view of habitus and aedeagi of
Melanterius costipennis
Lea
and
M. inconspicuus
(Lea)
. 28–29:
M. costipennis
; 28: male (Tasmania, Hobart); 29: aedeagus (Victoria, Cobden). 30–31:
M. inconspicuus
; 30: male (New South Wales, Yengo NP); 31: adeagus (New South Wales, Yengo NP).
Its penis (
Fig. 31
) differs significantly from that of
M. costatus
in the body having slightly curved sides and an attenuated, narrowly rounded apex.
It was collected
on
A. dealbata
and
A. decurrens
during
M. van den Berg’s
original survey (mostly under bark), and a short series was found by
S.
Neser
in Canberra in
1993 in
Uromycladium
galls on an unidentified
Acacia
species. We collected the species
on
Acacia fulva
in
New
South Wales
and
on
A. fimbriata
and
A. irrorata
in
Queensland
, but only as single specimens (
Table 1
).