Loxorhinus eruditus, Kuschel, 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 : 147

Loxorhinus eruditus n. sp.

Fig. 43

DESCRIPTION. — Derm dark reddish brown, densely covered with small grey, reddish or dark brown scales, scales paler on dorsal part of rostrum, three lines on pronotum, a little dot en elytral angles at base, other dots or major markings on elytra, and a ring around swollen part of femora. Setae sparse, more or less applied to surface, those on pronotum directed caudad obliquely towards midline.

Frontal fovea appearing as a fine line. Rostrum neither sulcate nor carinate, anterior half a little depress. Elytra relatively elongate, in lateral view nearly flat at first, then strongly convex down declivity. Remainder of characters as in the description of the genus above.

Length: 4.0-7.0 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype male (teneral, still with mandibular cusps) 5.3 x 3.1 mm, VII.1900, JMY, Coll. Fauvel, IRSN. 14 paratypes with BPBM, IRSN, NHML, NZAC, QMBA, SRFP.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — 1 spec., Belep Is., Art I., Sharp Coll. Tonghoué; 8 spec., ‘ Nouvelle-Calédonie’ ; 1 spec., Île des Pins , New Caledonia; 1 spec., Baie de Prony; 1 spec., La Foa; 2 spec., III.1959, N. L. H. Krauss; 1 spec., 4.III.1980, L Bigot; 2 spec., Nouméa; 1 spec., Tiakan Beach, 21°02S, 165°24E; 1 spec., Coll. Fauvel. 19 specimens .

REMARKS. — The specimens from A. Fauvel Coll. are mounted on cards but most had been pinned previously after having lost their internal organs to dermestids and mites.

ETYMOLOGY. — The Latin epithet ‘erudítus’ is applied to a learned person or scholar. A. Fauvel had proposed the name I am adopting here.