Cionus olivieri Rosenschoeld, 1838

Košťál, Michael & Caldara, Roberto, 2019, Revision of Palaearctic species of the genus Cionus Clairville (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cionini), Zootaxa 4631 (1), pp. 1-144 : 68-69

39. Cionus olivieri Rosenschoeld, 1838

Figs 39 a–f.

Cionus olivieri Rosenschoeld, 1838: 725 . Reitter, 1904: 53. Wingelmüller, 1914: 203; 1921: 108; 1937: 184. Hustache, 1932: 343. A. Hoffmann, 1958: 1222. Smreczyński, 1976: 58. Caldara, 2013: 124. Alonso-Zarazaga et al., 2017: 186.

Type locality. “Persia” (modern Iran) .

Type series. In coll. Schoenherr ( NHRS), which contains species described by Rosenschoeld , under the name C. olivieri , there are two males and three females corresponding to the original description in both locality labels and morphological characters. We designated a completely preserved, 5.30 mm long male labeled “ ♂ / Persia. Falderm: / 67 / Typus” as the lectotype of C. olivieri Rosenchoeld by adding the printed red label “ LECTOTYPUS Cionus olivieri Rosenschoeld M.Košťál et R.Caldara des.2011”. The other specimens labeled “ ♂ / Tauria Steven. / 66 / Paratypus ”, “ ♀ / Gallia mer. Aubé. / 68 / Allotypus ”, “ ♀ / Greminiel Bayer. / 69 / Paratypus ” and “ ♀ / German: / 70 / Paratypus ” were labeled as paralectotypes accordingly .

Synonyms. None.

Redescription. Male. Body stout, suboval. Head: rostrum moderately slender, long (l/ w 6.0, Rl/Pl 1.4), very dark brown to black; in lateral view very slightly, absolutely evenly curved, almost same width from base to shortly before apex; in dorsal view almost same width from base to apex, in apical part very slightly to indistinctly broadened, in basal part in cross-section almost round, in apical part moderately dorsoventrally flattened; almost completely, very densely, somewhat longitudinally punctured, with thin carina from base to shortly beyond antennal insertion at midline, very close to apex with small area sparsely punctured to bare; basal part with backwardly oriented, densely arranged, subrecumbent, elongate yellowish scales, apical part with forwardly oriented, suberect, whitish seta-like scales. Head between eyes very narrow, of less than 1/3 of rostrum width at base. Eyes large, rounded, not protruding from head outline. Antennae reddish-brown except darkened club, inserted at 0.6 of rostrum length; funicle of 0.6 scape length, segment 1 moderately wider than segment 2, segment 1 twice, segment 2 approximately three times as long as wide, segment 3 only very slightly longer than wide, segments 4–5 as long as wide; club spindle-shaped, 2.5 × as long as wide, of 0.7 funicle length, almost completely covered with recumbent, thin yellowish to brown hairs and sparse, erect light sensilla. Pronotum: dark brown to black, moderately wider than long (Pl/Pw 0.74), semidensely, very finely, somewhat unevenly punctured, punctures tiny, round, approximately of equal size, spaces between punctures larger or equal to puncture diameter; covered with evenly arranged, forwardly and medially oriented, subrecumbent, elongate (l/w 4–6) yellowish scales; widest at base, then almost evenly conically narrowed to anterior margin, without constriction, in lateral view flat in basal half, then moderately falling to anterior margin. Prosternum: anterior margin with deep semicircular to subquadrate, sharply incised emargination, bounded by small, only indistinct tubercles, separated from coxae by narrow prosternal area. Scutellum: triangular with blunt apex, covered with backwardly oriented, subrecumbent scales of same color as those on pronotum and elytra, densely punctured. Elytra: brown to dark brown, in basal 2/3 subparallel to slightly rounded, in apical third rounded, moderately elongate (El/Ew 1.24); widest shortly beyond 1/4 of their length, at base somewhat wider than pronotum (Ew/Pw 1.64), humeri subrotund, moderately prominent, with clear posthumeral impression; slightly convex on disc; interstria 1 from about 1/4 to almost half of medial length and in preapical area distinctly broadened, interstria 2 at same lengths noticeably narrowed and moderately constricted laterally encompassing medium large dorsal and preapical round to subrotund black tomentous maculae without differently colored scale border; interstriae except perimacular areas of approximately equal width, in anterior part moderately vaulted; odd interstriae with alternating, unevenly distributed, large black and only indistinct yellowish scale patches; striae shallow, formed by almost even rows of densely arranged, relatively small round punctures; entire surface covered with densely arranged recumbent to subrecumbent, relatively shortly elongate (l/w 4–6) yellowish scales completely concealing integument. Venter: in median part densely covered with backwardly oriented, subrecumbent, whitish hairs, in lateral part with elongate, recumbent, yellowish scales, without clusters of scales; mesosternal process flat, broad, with emargination at posterior margin, scaled, densely punctured; metasternum flat, transversally ribbed to punctured; ventrites 1 and 2 with relatively small but deep, densely punctured impression; ventrite 1 1.7 × as long as ventrite 2, ventrites 1–2 combined 5.5 × as long as ventrites 3–4 combined, ventrites 3–4 combined of 0.6 length of ventrite 5, ventrite 5 with median subrotund haired impression reaching almost its anterior margin. Legs: brown to dark brown, profemora with small teeth emphasized by erect scales, meso- and metafemora with large triangular sharp teeth; legs except onychia covered with recumbent (femora), subrecumbent to suberect (tibiae and tarsi), relatively densely arranged, elongate yellowish scales, on tibiae intermixed very sparse, suberect, black scales, on femora scales clustered to indistinct transverse bands, onychia covered with recumbent, thin, long whitish hairs; protarsal onychia as long as tarsomeres 1–3 combined, protarsal tarsomere 3 wider than long; protarsal lateral, meso- and metatarsal medial claws of almost half length of their pair-claws, clearly thinner than pair-claws. Penis: Figs 39 d–f, its body long, narrowed from base to apex, with concave sides, broadened and widely spoon-like rounded with small shallow incisure at tip.

Female. Rostrum longer (Rl/Pl 1.65), with apical part more coarsely punctured to longitudinally ribbed. Ventrites 1 and 2 without impression, convex. Claws of approximately equal length.

Variability. Length ♂♂ 3.85–5.39 mm, ♀♀ 3.90–5.95 mm. Very variable species in the body size and elytral pattern. There are specimens with very dense alternating black patches on elytra, and large dorsal and preapical sutural maculae to specimens without black patches, uniformly colored, with elytral vestiture having no or extremely reduced maculae. The shades of the elytral vestiture vary from light gray to deep yellow. The shape of pronotum and elytra varies very slightly, and the shape of penis is constant in all specimens from the large distributional area of this species.

Diagnosis. This species is recognizable by large size, rostrum in lateral view very slightly and evenly curved, of same width from base to shortly before apex, almost evenly conically narrowed pronotum, small but relatively deep impression on ventrites 1 and 2 in males, and the shape of the body of penis.

Comparative notes. Cionus olivieri is most closely related to C. bremondi , from which it differs by elytral pattern, lack of black scale patches on bases of interstriae 3–5, and especially by the shape of the body of penis. Some smaller specimens may resemble C. thapsus , from which it differs in males by longer onychia, more unequally long claws, and distinctly deeper impression on ventrites 1 and 2, in females by parallel-sided apical part of rostrum in dorsal view. Other specimens may resemble C. schultzei , from which C. olivieri differs most strikingly in both sexes by not narrowed apical part of rostrum in lateral view.

Biological notes. Cionus olivieri lives on many Verbascum species. The first author collected this species in southern Slovakia on V. densiflorum Bertol. and V. phlomoides , in Bulgaria on V. longifolium Ten. , in Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on large Verbascum spp. In Spain, the species was collected on V. sinuatum L. Smreczyński (1976) reported only V. thapsus as a host plant.

Distribution. This is a very widespread species in central and southern Europe and Asia. Its distributional area extends from Portugal and Spain to Anatolia, Transcaucasus, Middle East (also in Iraq), central Asia, western China (Xinjiang), Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is present also in Crete and Cyprus . C. olivieri does not occur in northern Europe, northern and eastern Asia and North Africa. The record from Morocco ( Smreczyński, 1976) probably con- cerns C. bremondi .

Non-type specimens examined. We examined more than 1400 specimens from all above mentioned regions and countries.

Figures

FIGURES 39–40. FIGURE 39. Cionus olivieri. a: body in dorsal view (male), b: body in lateral view (male), c: rostrum in lateral view (female), d: penis in ventral view, e: penis in lateral view, f: apex of penis in dorsal view. Not to scale. FIGURE 40. Cionus bremondi. a: body in dorsal view (male), b: body in lateral view (male), c: rostrum in lateral view (female), d: penis in ventral view, e: penis in lateral view, f: apex of penis in dorsal view. Not to scale.