Afrophloeus squamifer (Boheman) Boheman, 2013

Borovec, Roman & Oberprieler, Rolf G., 2013, Afrophloeus, a new genus of African weevils of the tribe Embrithini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), with description of a new species and notes on the composition of Embrithini, Zootaxa 3693 (3), pp. 365-378 : 375-376

Afrophloeus squamifer (Boheman) , comb. n.

( Figs. 3, 6, 9, 14–15 , 23 )

Trachyphloeus squamifer Boheman in Schoenherr, 1843: 112; Lacordaire, 1863: 193; Seidlitz, 1868: 98 (as synonym of spathulatus ); Lona, 1937: 33 (as synonym of spathulatus ).

Redescription. Body length 2.31–3.31 mm.

Colour pale to dark brownish, elytra with pale and dark chevron pattern indistinct except for strong dark V in middle ( Fig. 3 ); pronotum darker with faint paramedian pale patches near base; head with pale, indistinct median stripe and irregular pale and dark spots on epifrons; femora and tibiae with pale appressed scales.

Rostrum ( Fig. 9 ) 1.27–1.38 x broader than long, parallel-sided from base to apex. Epifrons with almost straight, parallel sides and narrow median groove. Antennae ( Fig. 14 ) robust; scapes gradually dilated towards apex, anterior and posterior edges evenly curved; funicles 7-segmented, segments 1 and 2 conical, 3–7 transverse, segment 1 very robust, 1.3 x longer than broad, 1.5–1.7 x broader than 2, segment 2 1.2–1.3 x longer than broad, 3– 7 progressively broader, 3 about as broad as 2, 7 more than twice broader than long.

Pronotum in dorsal view 1.77–1.84 x broader than long, broadest at anterior third, abruptly constricted behind anterior margin, sides feebly arcuate, base feebly arched, disc evenly convex, in some specimens with hardly visible, shallow, longitudinal median furrow; in lateral view in anterior third flat, in posterior two thirds weakly convex, anterior border very sligthly sinuate. Elytra 1.09–1.14 x broader than long, base deeply, somewhat angularly arched, shoulders almost evenly rounded, sides gently rounded, at apex jointly broadly rounded; posthumeral calli on interstria 9 in dorsal view almost invisible; striae very narrow, finely punctate, interstriae faintly convex; disk in lateral view feebly convex. Protibiae ( Fig. 15 ) as in A. spathulatus but outer apical spines (4 and 5 from inside) usually separate at their bases. Tarsi with segment 2 1.5 x broader than long, 3 1.6 x broader than long and 1.3 x broader than 2, onychium twice as long as 3.

Genitalia. Penis as in A. spathulatus . Ovipositor and sternite VIII of female as in A. spathulatus . Spermatheca ( Fig. 23 ) with cornu slender and curved, ramus small, distinctly broader than long, nodulus very long, longer than cornu, straight, somewhat tapering apicad.

Material examined. Types. Lectotype (here designated): Typus [red label, printed] / Cap. B. Sp. Drège. [handwritten] / LECTOTYPUS Trachyphloeus squamifer Boheman, Borovec & Oberprieler des. 2013 [red label, handwritten] / Afrophloeus squamifer (Boheman) , Borovec & Oberprieler det. 2013 [handwritten] (NHRS). Paralectotypes: 1 ex., same labels as lectotype except Paratypus; 2 exx., Paratypus [red label, printed] / Cap. B. Sp. [printed] / Drège [printed]; 3 exx., Paratypus [red label, printed] / Terra Caffror. Eckl. et Zeyh. [handwritten] (all NHRS). Other specimens. SOUTH AFRICA, NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE: 1 ♀, 8 exx., Hondeklipbaai, 30 19’S 17 16’E, 22.ix.1974, E. K. Hartwig [lgt.] (SANC). SOUTH AFRICA, WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE: 1 ex., Cap, Kirsch (SMDG); 1 ex., Cap. B. Sp. [Caput Bonae Spei] (SMDG); 1 ex., C. b. Sp. (KUMN); 8 exx., Gamkaberg Nat. Res., 33 44’S 21 57’E, 2.1.1994, E-Y: 3238, groundtraps 30 days, leg. Tom Berry (TMSA); 2 exx., Little Karroo, Gamkaberg, 1000m, 33 44’S 21 57’E, 15.5.1994, E-Y: 3074, groundtraps 30 days, leg. Tom Berry (TMSA); 1 ex., 7 km WSW Kirkwood, 33 24’S 25 22’E, 20.X.1994, loc. 27, leg. R. Danielsson (MZLS); 7 exx., Mossel Bay [34°11’S 22°08’E], June 1921, R. E. Turner [lgt.] (BMNH); 1 ex., ditto except 5.–31.vii.1921 (BMNH); 1 ex., ditto except Aug. [August] 1921 (BMNH); 2 exx., ditto except Febr. [February] 1922 (BMNH); 1 ex., ditto except 15.– 28.iii.1922 (BMNH); 1 ex., ditto except 30.xi.1938 (BMNH); 2 exx., Montagu, 33 47’08” S 20 06’79”E, 18.XI. 2007, 300 m, E. Colonnelli lgt. (ECRI); 3 exx., Montagu (vaglio) [sifting], 33 47’85”S 20 00’79”E, 18.XI.2007, G. Osella lgt. (GOVI); 1 ex., Little Karroo, Raubenheimer, 33 24’S 22 19’E, 22.10.1993, E-Y: 2892, groundtraps 15 days, groundtrap with banana bait, leg. Endrödy-Younga (TMSA). SOUTH AFRICA, EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE: 1 ex., Algoa Bay [33°50’S 25°50’E], 1.7.[19]17, Dr. H. Brauns [lgt.] (BMNH); 1 ex., ditto but without date (BMNH); 1 ex., Grahamstown, 33 19’S 26 32’E, ii.1979, from Robinia pseudoacacia, V. Moran, T. R. E. Southwood [lgt.] (SANC); 8 exx., Paterson Dist., 33°26’S 25°58’E, iv.1985, adults damaging germinatig chicory by destroying seedling leaves under the soil surface, C. J. Stedman [lgt.] (SANC); 1 ♂, Somerset East [32°43’S 25°35’E], October 1930, R. E. Turner [lgt.] (BMNH); 5 exx., Uitenhage [33°46’S 25°24’E], Rv. J. O’Neil [lgt.] (BMNH); 1 ex., Willowmore [33°17’S 23°29’E], Dr. Brauns [lgt.] (BMNH). SOUTH AFRICA, FREE STATE PROVINCE: 1 ex., Adullam Farm near Clarens, 28 32’S 28 28’E, 20–26.ii.1980, W. A. Harrop [lgt.] (SANC); 1 ex., Le Long Farm, 28 02’S 28 07’E, 07.iv.1999, hand-collected in grassveld, Jacques Deere [lgt.] (SANC); 1 ex., Randburg, [26 06’S 28 00’E], 19-IV-1987, leg. L. Y. de Jager (SANC); 16 exx., Reitz, 27 48’S 28 26’E, 21.x.1975, serious pest of sunflower seedlings, T. W. Drinkwater (SANC). SOUTH AFRICA, NORTH-WEST PROVINCE: 1 ex., Hartebeesfontein nr. Klerksdorp, 26 47’S 26 44’E, 17.xii.1985, F. van Eeden [lgt.] (SANC); 1 ex., Hartebeespoortdam, 25 44’S 27 51’E, 10.x.1977, P. Reavell [lgt.] (SANC). SOUTH AFRICA, GAUTENG PROVINCE: 5 exx., Eikenhof [26°19’S 27°58’E], 19-11-1954, destroying cucumber plants, M. Botha [lgt.] (SANC); 1 ex., Pretoria [25°45’S 28°12’E], J. B. R. F., Apr. 1963 (SANC); 6 exx., Pretoria, 25 45’S 28 12’E, X.1974, E. K. Hartwig [lgt.] (SANC); 7 exx., Pretoria, 25 45’S 28 12’E, 8.x.1986, adults damaging green pepper plants, R. Oberprieler [lgt.] (SANC). SOUTH AFRICA, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE: 7 exx., Delmas, 26 08’S 28 40’E, 25.x.1990, R. H. Watmough (SANC). SOUTH AFRICA, LIMPOPO PROVINCE: 1 ex., Rust de Winter, SE 25 88 BA [25°45’S 28°12’E], 28-III-1987, leg. L. Y. de Jager (SANC). SOUTH AFRICA, UNCERTAIN: 2 exx., S. Africa (BMNH); 1 ex., 2043 (BMNH); 2 exx., Africa m. [south], Kraatz (SMDG). LESOTHO: 4 exx., Mamathes [29°08’S 27°51’E], 16-IV- 1950, C. Jacot-Guillarmod [lgt.] (BMNH). AUSTRALIA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 6 exx., Agery [34°10’S 137°44’E], 10.vi.2008, S. Richmond, damaging canola seedlings (ANIC, SAMA); 6 exx., SE of Corny Point [34°55’S 137°05’E], 14.v.2011, H. DeGraaf, ex medic pasture (ANIC, SAMA); 5 exx., ditto except 24.vi.2011 (ANIC, SAMA); 1 ex., Kimba [33°08’S 136°25’E], 17.vii.2009, H. Whitwell, ex wheat, associated with Polyphrades laetus (ANIC); 1 ex., Maitland [34°22’S 137°40’E], 07.vii.2004, I. Koch (Private Agro), damaging canola seedlings (ANIC); 9 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀, Marion Bay [35°14’S 136°58’E], vii.2009, K. Perry, damaging vetch in barley (ANIC, RBSC, SAMA, SANC), 15 exx., 7 km N Marion Bay [35°14’S 136°58’E], 02.vii.2009, K. Henry, feeding on volunteer vetch in barley crop (ANIC, SAMA); 4 exx., ditto except 13.vii.2009 (ANIC); 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, Pivot’s premises, Wallaroo [33°55’S 137°37’E], 14.vii.1992, ex recently imported rock phosphate, CA 920104 (ANIC).

Biology. The adults have been recorded as a pest of seedlings of chicory, green-pepper, cucumber and sunflower in South Africa and of canola, medic and vetch in Australia. Both males and females occur in Australia, so reproduction is also bisexual in this area of introduction.

Distribution. This is the commonest and most widespread species of Afrophloeus . It is appears to be native in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa and introduced on the Highveld of the Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North-West and Limpopo provinces and Lesotho ( Fig. 24 ), from where it was first recorded in the 1950s and where it seems widely established now. In Australia it was apparently introduced in 1992 with rock phosphate imported from South Africa, and it is now established on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia ( Fig. 25 ).

Remarks. The lectotype specimen in the NHRS is 2.88 mm long and well preserved, standing under the name “ squamifer ” in Schoenherr’s collection. The localities and collectors of the type series are stated as “Caput Bonae Spei. Dom. Drège. Caffraria. Dom. Ecklon et Zeyer.” in Boheman’s description (Schoenherr 1843). Like the lectotype of A. spathulatus , the four types of A. squamifer collected by Drège were probably taken somewhere in the southern or eastern Cape Colony, whereas the three types collected by the botanists Christian Frederick Ecklon and Carl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher must have been collected in the eastern Cape Colony, probably at Algoa Bay (the present-day Port Elizabeth), which they visited a number of times during their exploration of the eastern Cape Colony between 1831 and 1832 (Gunn & Codd 1981). Boheman mentioned a uniformly dark “var. β“ in his description but did not label any specimens of the type series as such, and although some types have an indistinct pronotal and elytral colour pattern, there is no distinct dark colour morph either in the type series or among the other specimens of the species we have examined. Seidlitz (1868) synonymised squamifer with spathulatus , surmising the former name to denote the female and the latter the male of a single species. He did notice that his four specimens of squamifer had seven funicle segments and the single specimen of spathulatus only five, but, given the sexual dimorphism in antennal shape already known at the time to exist in some Palaearctic Trachyphloeini , e.g., Cathormiocerus chevrolati Seidlitz and C. lapidicola Chevrolat , he interpreted the difference in the number of funicle segments between A. squamifer and A. spathulatus as such as well, not being able to find any other differences between them. However, Afrophloeus squamifer is easily distinguishable from its congeners by the different number of funicle segments (seven, and seemingly consistently so) and the slender, gradually dilated scapes.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 15. Habitus and structural details of Afrophloeus gen. n. 1. A. spathulatus (Boheman), ♀, Swartville, dorsal habitus; 2. A. dilaticornis sp. n., paratype ♀, Alexandria, dorsal habitus; 3. A. squamifer (Boheman), ♂, Marion Bay, dorsal habitus; 4. A. spathulatus (Boheman), ♀, Swartville, lateral habitus; 5. A. dilaticornis sp. n., paratype ♀, Alexandria, lateral habitus; 6. A. squamifer (Boheman), ♀, Marion Bay, lateral habitus; 7. A. spathulatus (Boheman), ♂, Kleinriviersberg, head, dorsal view; 8. A. dilaticornis sp. n., paratype ♂, Alexandria, head, dorsal view; 9. A. squamifer (Boheman), ♂, Marion Bay, head, dorsal view; 10. A. spathulatus (Boheman), ♀, Swartville, left antenna, dorsal view; 11. A. spathulatus (Boheman), ♂, Kleinriviersberg, left protibia and tarsus, dorsal view; 12. A. dilaticornis sp. n., paratype ♀, Alexandria, left antenna, dorsal view; 13. A. dilaticornis sp. n., paratype ♂, Alexandria, left protibia and tarsus, dorsal view; 14. A. squamifer (Boheman), ♂, Marion Bay, left antenna, dorsal view; 15. A. squamifer (Boheman), ♂, Marion Bay, left protibia and tarsus, dorsal view. Scale bars 1 mm for 1 – 6, 0.5 mm for 7 – 9, 0.25 mm for 10 – 15.

FIGURES 16 – 23. Genitalia of Afrophloeus gen. n. 16. penis of A. spathulatus (Boheman), dorsal view; 17. penis of A. spathulatus (Boheman), lateral view; 18. tegmen of A. spathulatus (Boheman), dorsal view; 19. sternite IX of male A. spathulatus (Boheman), dorsal view; 20. sternite VIII of female A. spathulatus (Boheman), dorsal view; 21. ovipositor of A. spathulatus (Boheman), dorsal view; 22. spermatheca of A. spathulatus (Boheman); 23. spermatheca of A. squamifer (Boheman). Scale bars 0.5 mm for 16 – 20, 0.25 for 21 – 23.

FIGURES 24 – 25. Distribution of Afrophloeus species. 24. South Africa; 25. South Australia (○ — A. spathulatus (Boheman), ■ — A. squamifer (Boheman), ∆ — A. dilaticornis sp. n.).