Xyloctonus biseriatus Schedl, 1953

Jordal, Bjarte H., 2024, Integrated taxonomy, biology and biogeography of the Afrotropical genus Xyloctonus (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae), Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 71 (1), pp. 67-84 : 67

Xyloctonus biseriatus Schedl, 1953

Figs 18 , 21 , 24

Xyloctonus biseriatus Schedl, 1953: 76.

Type material.

Lectotype: Madagascar, Region de l’Androy Ambovombe, Dr J. Decorse, 1901, 1 au 15 dec, 00 [MNHN]. Paralectotype: Madagascar sud, Fort Dauphin, Allaud, 1900 - I [MNHN].

Diagnosis.

Length 1.5-2.0 mm, 1.8-1.9 × as long as wide, colour black, dull; antennal club with two visible procurved sutures; frons glabrous; anterior margin of pronotum with two raised teeth; elytral interstriae 9 curves before apex and continues transversely to elytral suture; spaces between strial punctures with elongate elevation that mimics a dashed line; scutellar shield slightly impressed in middle; elytral suture straight.

Distribution.

Madagascar.

New records.

Madagascar, Ankarafantsika NP [-16.264, 46.828], 200 m alt. ex. Diospyros branch, 8 May 2015, B. Jordal, leg. [ZMUB]; Reserve speciale de l’Ankarana, 22.9 km SW Anivorano [-12.93, 49.16], B. Fischer [CAS].

Biology.

Previously collected in dry forests in the south of Madagascar and the new record from further north was also from a dry forest type. Specimens were collected twice from thin branches of Diospyros ( Ebenaceae ), about 3 cm in diameter. The egg tunnel was cut in the phloem and inner bark layers, transverse to the grain of wood. About 30-40 young tenerals and larvae were produced per brood (Table 2 ). Parents were not present at late larval stage. Colonisation densities were high, with only an average of 0.5 cm distance between egg tunnels.

Figures

Figures 16 - 24. Dorsal, lateral and front view of holotype of X. opacus (16, 19, 22); paratype of X. punctipennis (17, 20, 23); X. biseriatus (18, 21, 24).