Miarus ajugae (Herbst, 1795)

Gültekin, Neslihan, Caldara, Roberto & Gültekin, Levent, 2021, Miarus Schoenherr and Cleopomiarus Pierce (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Species Associated with Campanula L. (Campanulaceae) Plants in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey, The Coleopterists Bulletin 75 (3), pp. 505-511 : 506

Miarus ajugae (Herbst, 1795)

( Figs. 1A–C )

Material Examined. TURKEY: Trabzon Prov., Zigana Mountain, Hamsiköy, Zitaş Road , 40°40′21′′N, 39°26′05′′E, 1,700 m, 14.7.201 9, 46♂, 35♀, N. GÜltekin leg .

Diagnosis. Length 2.5–3.1 mm. Dorsal vestiture comprising recumbent whitish to brown, seta-like scales. Rostrum in male shorter than pronotum, in female a little longer than in male, curved in lateral view. Pronotum transverse, with rounded sides. Elytra short, with basal margin distinctly directed forward in lateral half, weakly curved at sides. Femora slender, without tooth. Ventrite 5 in male with deep median fovea and with two robust teeth posterolaterally to fovea; pygidium in male weakly gibbous in upper half and weakly depressed in lower half; in female with shallow fovea. Body of penis with endophallus containing two elongate sclerites, two pairs of small suboval sclerites bearing spines and positioned caudally to the ventral and dorsal elongate sclerites, and two other small median sclerites, one fork-shaped and the other subcylindrical.

Remarks. In Turkey M. ajugae could be confused with Miarus monticola Petri, 1912 and Miarus rotundicollis Desbrochers des Loges, 1893 . However, there are good distinctive characters: apart from the shape of the penis, in the males of these two species ventrite 5 has a shallower fovea and distinctly smaller teeth than in M. ajugae .

Distribution. Austria, Belgium, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Armenia, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Syria ( Alonso-Zarazaga et al. 2017), Turkey (present finding: new record).

Plant Association. According to literature, adults and immature stages of M. ajugae were collected on various species of Campanula ( Campanula bononiensis L., Campanula carpathica Jacq. , Campanula glomerata L., Campanula latifolia L., Campanula macrorrhiza Gay ex DC , Campanula media L., Campanula patula L., Campanula persicifolia L., Campanula rapunculoides L., Campanula rapunculus L., Campanula rhomboidalis L., Campanula rotundifolia L., Campanula trachelium L.), Phyteuma ( Phyteuma orbiculare L., Phyteuma spicatum L.), and Adenophora liliifolia (L.) A. DC. ( Caldara 2007; Skuhrovec et al. 2018; Smreczyński 1976).

We collected M. ajugae on Campanula lactiflora Bieb. ( Fig. 1D ) in the eastern Black Sea Region in open areas within forest habitats. This plant is native to Turkey and the Caucasus and was never previously reported as a host plant of Miarus . It is also the first known host plant for M. ajugae recorded from Turkey.

Figures

Fig. 1. Miarus ajugae and host plant.A) Adult male, dorsal view, B) Adult female, dorsal view, C) Aedeagus, dorsal view, D) Campanula lactiflora, host plant, E) Egg, deposited in the ovary of a flower, F) Larva feeding in ovary with young seeds.