Aphanerostethus morimotoi 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 morimotoi Kojima & Lewis sp. nov.

Figs 2 E – H , 3 , 7 D – F , 10 C , 15 M, N , 20 A, B

Specimens examined.

Holotype: Vietnam: • Lam Dong Province, Mount Lang Biang , 12°02'N, 108°26'E, elevation 1700 m, 27. II. 2011, H. Kojima, male deposited in TUA, JHLHY_DAR_093 . Paratypes: Vietnam: • Lam Dong Province, Mount Lang Biang , elevation 1640–2000 m, 21–27. II. 2013, H. Kojima, (2, TUA; 1, OIST; 1, KUM), JHLHY_DAR_113 – JHLHY_DAR_115 (EGP 0160 D 03, EGP 0160 D 08, EGP 0160 D 12), JHLHY_DAR_187 ; • Lam Dong Province, Mount Lang Biang , 12°02'N, 108°26'E, elevation 1700 m, 17–18. II. 2011, H. Kojima, (3, TUA; 1, OIST), JHLHY_DAR_111 (EGP 0160 D 05), JHLHY_DAR_188 – JHLHY_DAR_190 .

Diagnosis.

Body length 1.8–2.0 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 evenly distributed along intervals. Elytral interval 5 + 6 not distinctly arched at base. Femora with or without extremely minute tubercle or 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 in male curved inwards, and with minute black tubercles at base (Fig. 2 E – H ). Aedeagus sinuate near midpoint, and tapering prominently in lateral half (Fig. 15 M, N ), unevenly curved, but rather bent ventrally at apex (Fig. 15 M, N ). Internal sac with roughened basal protruding structure (Fig. 15 M, N ).

Distribution.

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

Etymology.

This eponym is dedicated to the late Dr. Katsura Morimoto, who pioneered the field of weevil taxonomy and amassed an invaluable specimen collection (at KUM) which we humbly make use of in this study.

Figures

Figure 2. Metatibial unci in Aphanerostethus (males) A – D A. magnus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 075) E – H A. morimotoi sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 113) I – L A. spinosus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 077) M – P A. nudus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 012).

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 7. X-ray microtomography generated 3 D models of Aphanerostethus pronota with scales removed, revealing otherwise hidden differences in underlying puncture morphology A – C Aphanerostethus magnus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 029, 035, and 108, respectively) D – F Aphanerostethus morimotoi sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 189, 144, and 115, respectively).

Figure 10. X-ray microtomography generated 3 D models of Aphanerostethus elytra with scales removed, revealing differences in the length of the 10 th elytral stria. The yellow and red arrows indicate the base and apex of the 10 th elytral stria, respectively A Aphanerostethus bifidus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 092) B A. falcatus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 172) C A. morimotoi sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 115) D A. decoratus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 079) E A. distinctus (Morimotoi & Miyakawa, 1985) (OKENT 0089414) F A. taiwanus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 070).

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 20. Lateral and dorsal photographs of Aphanerostethus species A, B Aphanerostethus morimotoi sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 093) C, D Aphanerostethus spinosus sp. nov. (JHLHY _ DAR _ 077). Scale bars: 0.5 mm.