Aphanerostethus incurvatus Kojima & Lewis, 2024

Lewis, Jake H., Kojima, Hiroaki, Suenaga, Miyuki, Petsopoulos, Dimitrios, Fujisawa, Yusuke, Truong, Xuan Lam & Warren, Dan L., 2024, The era of cybertaxonomy: X-ray microtomography reveals cryptic diversity and concealed cuticular sculpture in Aphanerostethus Voss, 1957 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), ZooKeys 1217, pp. 1-45 : 1-45

Aphanerostethus incurvatus Kojima & Lewis sp. nov.

Figs 1 M – P , 3 , 6 A, B , 15 G, H , 19 A, B

Specimens examined.

Holotype: Vietnam: • Lam Dong Province, Mount Lang Biang , 12°02'N, 108°26'E, elevation 1700 m, 17. II. 2011, H. Kojima, male deposited in TUA, JHLHY_DAR_095 . Paratypes: Vietnam: • Lam Dong Province, Mount Lang Biang , 12°02'N, 108°26'E, elevation 1700 m, 17. II. 2011, H. Kojima, (1, TUA), JHLHY_DAR_104 (EGP 0160 C 11) ; • same locality, 17. II. 2011, H. Kojima, (1, TUA), JHLHY_DAR_100 (EGP 0160 D 06) .

Diagnosis.

Body length 1.7–2.1 mm. Cuticle coated in dark, sandy gray, and white scales in indistinct pattern. Funicle with six articles. Procoxae contiguous. Only odd-numbered elytral intervals with erect scales. Erect elytral scales concentrated in bundle along third elytral interval at midpoint; evenly distributed along other intervals. Elytral interval 5 + 6 distinctly arched at base. Femora all with large tooth along ventral edge. Scutellum reduced. Prosternal cavity prominent and with steep lateral ridges. Metaventrite with a distinct elevated transverse ridge separating the meta- and mesocoxae. Metatibial uncus curved inwards, and with minute black tubercles at base in males (Fig. 1 M – P ). Aedeagus evenly curved in lateral half, and in lateral view (Fig. 15 G, H ). Internal sac with U-shaped, basal protruding structure (Fig. 15 G, H ).

Distribution.

This species is currently only known from Mount Liang Bang, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam.

Etymology.

The specific name incurvatus is a Latin participle in reference to the incurved metatibial uncus of males (Fig. 1 M – P ).

Figures

Figure 1. Metatibial unci in Aphanerostethus (males) A – D A. bifidus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 102) E – H A. distinctus (Morimoto & Miyakawa, 1985) (OKENT 0087658) I – L A. falcatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 099) M – P A. incurvatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 100).

Figure 3. Maximum likelihood tree of Aphanerostethus species based on an 872 base-pair long concatenated DNA matrix (CO 1, Cytb, 16 S) with gene-wise partition modelling (CO 1 / Cytb: GTR + F + I + G 4; 16 S: GTR + F + G 4) constructed in IQ-TREE v. 1.6. 12. Branch support values represent standard nonparametric bootstraps (1000 replicates) and posterior probabilities. The symbol “ – ” indicates a posterior probability less than 50 (i. e., collapsed nodes in the Bayesian Inference tree). EGP codes represent DNA extraction codes and serve also as unique specimen identifiers. Associated Aphanerostethus weevil figures on the right of the tree are not to scale. Note that, except for A. distinctus and A. taiwanus (see Comments under the A. taiwanus species profile), the monophyly of all Aphanerostethus species is strongly supported (BS: 100, PP: 1).

Figure 6. X-ray microtomography generated 3 D models of Aphanerostethus pronota with scales removed, revealing otherwise hidden differences in underlying puncture morphology A, B Aphanerostethus incurvatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 095, 104) C – F Aphanerostethus japonicus sp. nov. (OKENT 0055232, JHLHY _ DAR _ 051, 052, 041).

Figure 15. Aedeagi of Aphanerostethus species A, B A. bifidus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 102) C, D A. distinctus (Morimoto & Miyakawa, 1985) (OKENT 87658) E, F A. falcatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 099) G, H A. incurvatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 100) I, J A. japonicus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 052) K, L A. magnus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 022) M, N A. morimotoi sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 113) O, P A. nudus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 012) Q, R A. spinosus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 077) S, T A. taiwanus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 016) U, V A. vannideki Voss, 1957 (JHLHY _ DAR _ 082).

Figure 19. Lateral and dorsal photographs of Aphanerostethus species A, B Aphanerostethus incurvatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 095) C, D Aphanerostethus magnus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 023). Scale bars: 0.5 mm.