Hypothenemus plumeriae ( Nordlinger, 1856 )

Atkinson, Thomas H. & Flechtmann, Carlos A. H., 2021, New species, new records and synonymy of Brazilian species of Hypothenemus Westwood, 1834 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), Insecta Mundi 2021 (846), pp. 1-33 : 4

Hypothenemus plumeriae ( Nordlinger, 1856) , status restored

Bostrichus plumeriae Nordlinger 1856: 74

Hypothenemus plumeriae (Nordlinger) . Wood and Bright 1992: 938. Complete synonymy given.

Hypothenemus eruditus Westwood 1834 . Bright 2019: 136 plumeriae = eruditus

Stephanoderes parallelus Hopkins, 1915: 25 . New synonymy.

Wood (1982: 905) questioned the validity of H. parallelus and suggested that it might be a synonym of H. eruditus Westwood. Later he suggested that it might be synonymous with H. plumeriae ( Wood 2007) . Large numbers of specimens of H. plumeriae were collected from traps in Brazil by the second author and collaborators and we were concerned that the differences given in his 2007 key between H. parallelus and H. plumeriae were extremely minor and variable. The holotype of S. parallelus (USNM) was compared by the first author with those of S. cylindricus Hopkins (USNM), H. pallidus Hopkins (USNM), and H. guadaloupensis Schedl (USNM), all of which have previously been synonymized with H. plumeriae by Wood. Likewise, all of the specimens in Wood’s collection identified as H. plumeriae were studied. We conclude that parallelus Hopkins falls within the range of H. plumeriae sensu Wood (2007) . Bright (2019: 136) treated H. plumeriae as a synonym of eruditus Westwood without mentioning H. parallelus because the small frontal elevation on the frons was difficult to see. While this character is subtle, it is consistent and typical “ eruditus ” and “ plumeriae ” are often found in the same trap samples with no intergradation. There is a great deal of variation within what is currently referred to H. eruditus which is most likely a complex of cryptic species ( Kambestad et al. 2017), but all of these forms have the frons completely convex apart from a slight transverse impression above the epistoma. In specimens of H. plumeriae there is a distinct concavity above the epistoma with an impunctate elevation above it in the middle of the frons.