Cionus gebleri Gyllenhal, 1838

Košťál, Michael & Caldara, Roberto, 2019, Revision of Palaearctic species of the genus Cionus Clairville (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cionini), Zootaxa 4631 (1), pp. 1-144 : 80-81

47. Cionus gebleri Gyllenhal, 1838

Figs 47 a–f.

Cionus gebleri Gyllenhal, 1838: 729 . Wingelmüller, 1914: 197; 1921: 105; 1937: 177. Smreczyński, 1976: 57. Caldara, 2013: 123. Alonso-Zarazaga et al., 2017: 185.

Cionus thapsus semialbellus Reitter, 1904: 52 . Wingelmüller, 1914: 206 ( C. thapsi “ab.” semialbellus); 1921: 109 ( C. thapsi “ab.” semialbellus); 1937: 187 ( C. thapsi “ab.” semialbellus). Caldara, 2013: 124. Alonso-Zarazaga et al., 2017: 186. syn. n.

Type locality. Siberia ( Russia) .

Type series. The species was described based on an unspecified number of specimens from “Sibiria”. In coll. Schoenherr ( NHRS), where also species described by Gyllenhal are deposited, there are two males under the name Cionus gebleri . The first one, 4.10 mm long, in poor condition with missing right posterior leg labeled “ ♂ / Cion: Thapsi. Sibir: Gebl: / 198 / Typus [printed red label]” was designated as the lectotype of Cionus gebleri Gyllenhal by adding the label “ LECTOTYPUS Cionus gebleri Gyllenhal M. Košťál et R.Caldara des.2011 [printed red la- bel]”. The second one, with missing right metatarsus labeled “ ♂ / Cion: Thapsi. / Sibir: Gebl: / 199” was labeled as paralectotype accordingly.

Synonyms. Cionus thapsus semialbellus was described based on a single male from Sarepta. In coll. Reitter ( NHMW), there is a single heavily abraded male, holed by Anthrenus , without head, base of rostrum and large part of left elytron, labeled “123 / Becker Sarepta 1870 / thapsi v.semialbellus m. Type / v.semialbellus ”. This specimen is undoubtedly the holotype. For clarity, we provided this specimen with the label “ HOLOTYPUS Cionus thapsus v. semialbellus Reitter M.Košťál et R.Caldara vid. 2011 [printed red label]”. The holotype is conspecific with the lectotype of C. gebleri Gyllenhal and was labeled “ Cionus gebleri Gyllenhal Michael Košťál det. 201 1”.

Redescription. Male. Body medium stout, subrotund. Head: rostrum medium stout, medium long (l/ w 5.1, Rl/ Pl 1.21), brown to dark brown; in lateral view in basal part very slightly curved, of same width from base to shortly before antennal insertion, at antennal insertion abruptly more curved and moderately widened, in apical part moderately tapered to apex; in dorsal view slightly broadened from base to apex, in apical part subparallel, in basal part constricted laterally, in apical part dorsoventrally flattened; at base very densely to confluently, in middle densely, in apical part more sparsely longitudinally punctured, distal half of apical part along midline with longitudinal smooth shiny area; basal part covered with up- and backwardly oriented, recumbent, thin pale scales, at antennal insertion and in apical part with forwardly oriented suberect pale seta-like scales. Head between eyes narrow, of less than 0.4 rostrum width at base. Eyes very large, rounded, not protruding from head outline. Antennae reddish-brown, inserted at almost 0.7 of rostrum length; funicle of 0.7 scape length, segment 1 slightly wider than segment 2, segment 1 twice, segment 2 slightly more than twice as long as wide, segments 3–5 as long as wide, globose; club elongate to spindle-shaped, 2.5 × as long as wide, completely covered with recumbent, thin, pale yellowish hairs and sparse, erect, long pale sensilla. Pronotum: dark brown, somewhat wider than long (Pl/Pw 0.67), densely evenly punctured, punctures subrotund, of unequal size, spaces between punctures smaller than puncture diameter; densely unevenly covered with variously oriented, recumbent to subrecumbent, elongate (l/w 5–8), yellowish scales; widest at base, in basal part distinctly, in anterior half even more noticeably subconically narrowed to anterior margin, with only indistinct shallow constriction, in lateral view in basal half moderately, in anterior half more distinctly falling to anterior margin. Prosternum: anterior margin with sharply incised, deep semicircular to subquadrate emargination bounded by sharp edges, separated from coxae by narrow prosternal area. Scutellum: triangular, with relatively sharp apex, covered with scales similar to those on elytra, densely punctured to rugulose. Elytra: reddish-brown, in basal 2/3 subparallel, in apical 1/3 broadly evenly rounded, moderately elongate (El/Ew 1.24), widest shortly before 1/3 of their length, at base markedly wider than pronotum (Ew/Pw 1.74), humeri subquadrate to subrotund, prominent, with posthumeral impression; convex on disc; interstria 1 from 0.15 to 0.4 of medial length very strik- ingly broadened and in preapical area markedly broadened, interstria 2 at same lengths very distinctly narrowed and constricted laterally, interstria 3 on dorsum moderately constricted laterally encompassing very large dorsal and large preapical black tomentous maculae without differently colored scale border; interstriae except perimacular areas of approximately equal width; odd interstriae with alternating unevenly distributed, large patches of black and yellowish scales; striae shallow, formed by roughly uneven single rows of large round punctures, often emarginating interstriae; entire surface densely covered with recumbent to subrecumbent, relatively shortly elongate (l/w 3–5), tipped yellowish scales almost completely concealing integument. Venter: almost evenly covered with recumbent scales and in median longitudinal part with hairs being distinctly clustered only on metepisterna; mesosternal process flat, broadly subquadrate, with truncated posterior margin, scaled, densely punctured; metasternum concave, densely and slightly transversally punctured, ventrite 1 with deep, ventrite 2 in anterior 2/3 with shallow punctured impression; ventrite 1 1.8 × as long as ventrite 2, ventrites 1–2 combined 4.6 × as long as ventrites 3–4 combined, ventrites 3–4 combined of 0.7 length of ventrite 5. Legs: reddish-brown, profemora with small teeth, meso- and metafemora with large sharp subtriangular teeth, femora covered with somewhat unevenly distributed, recumbent elongate yellowish scales forming barely visible transverse bands, tibiae with subrecumbent yellowish and black intermixed elongate scales, tarsomeres 1–3 with suberect pale seta-like scales, onychia with recumbent long whitish hairs; protarsal onychia of normal length, as long as tarsomeres 1–3 combined, tarsomere 3 wider than long; claws as in C. thapsus . Penis: Figs 47 d–f, its body medium long, almost evenly tapered from its half length to apex, lancet-like.

Female. Rostrum moderately longer (Rl/Pl 1.26), antennae inserted at 0.6 of rostrum length. Ventrites 1 and 2 without impression. Claws of approximately equal length.

Variability. Length ♂♂ 3.59–4.38 mm, ♀♀ 3.63–4.61 mm. This species varies to some extent from less to more distinct elytral pattern. The size of both elytral maculae may be somewhat smaller, especially in specimens from Armenia collected on Scrophularia (Alagjaz env. 2200 m N 40 o 44.2´E 44 o 10.9´9.–13.vi. 2012, M. Košťál leg., det. et coll.) the dorsal macula is reduced, and the elytral pattern in these specimens is pale, with less apparent alternating patches of white and black scales. Many specimens have a bicolored rostrum with basal part dark brown and apical part light reddish-brown. Some specimens, especially from Kazakhstan, have an unevenly rounded elytral apex.

Diagnosis. Cionus gebleri is characterised by almost concealed elytral integument, antennal insertion, especially in males, close to apex of rostrum, very large dorsal and large preapical elytral maculae, short protarsal onychia in males, deep impression on ventrite 1 and 2 in males, and penis shape.

Comparative notes. This species is rather peculiar and may be perhaps confused with C. thapsus or C. ganglbaueri . It differs from both by penis shape, from the former by more distal antennal insertion on rostrum, large dorsal macula and deep impression on ventrites 1 and 2 in males, from latter by elytral pattern, reddish to reddishbrown rostrum, elytra and legs.

Biological notes. This species is known to be monophagous on Verbascum phoeniceum ( Smreczynśki, 1976) . The first author collected C. gebleri in Slovakia and Kazakhstan on this plant. In Armenia, specimens of C. gebleri with unusually small dorsal macula were collected by the first author, where peculiar pale-flower form of V. phoeni- ceum occurs (O. Majzlan pers. comm.). These specimens deserve further, possibly genetic investigation.

Distribution. This species is widely distributed from central and eastern Europe to Turkey, western Siberia ( Legalov 2010) and central Asia ( Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan). The species was reported erroneously also from Italy ( Abbazzi & Osella 1992).

Non-type specimens examined. We examined 87 specimens from all above reported countries and regions except Turkey, western Siberia and Turkmenistan .

Figures

FIGURES 47–48. FIGURE 47. Cionus gebleri. 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 48. Cionus longicollis. 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.