Cionus wittei Kirsch, 1881

Košťál, Michael & Caldara, Roberto, 2019, Revision of Palaearctic species of the genus Cionus Clairville (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cionini), Zootaxa 4631 (1), pp. 1-144 : 95-97

57. Cionus wittei Kirsch, 1881

Figs 57 a–f.

Cionus wittei Kirsch, 1881: 8 . Reitter, 1904: 58. Wingelmüller, 1914: 219; 1921: 109; 1937: 201. Caldara, 2013: 124. Alonso- Zarazaga et al., 2017: 186.

Type locality. Jaffa ( Israel) .

Type series. In coll. MTD, there are a couple of specimens labeled “Jaffa Kirsch / Typus! / Staatl. Museum für Tierkunde Dresden”. As the author did not indicate the holotype in the original description, we remounted a 4.42 mm long, well-preserved male and designated it as the lectotype of Cionus wittei Kirsch by adding the printed red label “ LECTOTYPUS Cionus wittei Kirsch Michael Košťál des. 2014”. The female was labeled as paralectotype accordingly.

Synonyms. None.

Redescription. Male. Body stout, subrotund. Head: rostrum moderately stout, medium long (l/ w 6.3, Rl/Pl 1.21), black; in lateral view moderately unevenly curved, at antennal insertion somewhat broadened, somewhat more curved, of same width from base to antennal insertion, then slightly tapered to apex; in dorsal view visibly broadened from base to antennal insertion, then subparallel to apex, in basal part markedly laterally constricted, in apical part slightly dorsoventrally flattened; confluently longitudinally punctured, at apex punctures distributed sparsely; basal part with up- and backwardly oriented, subrecumbent to suberect, elongate grayish scales, apical part with forwardly oriented, suberect to erect, longer and thinner scales. Head between eyes relatively broad, of half rostrum width at base. Eyes large, rounded, not protruding from head outline. Antennae reddish-brown except black club and darkened distal funicular segments, inserted at 0.6 of rostrum length; funicle of 0.7 scape length, segment 1 wider than segment 2, segment 1 almost twice, segment 2 three times as long as wide; club spindle-shaped, more than twice as long as wide, completely covered with recumbent, thin brown hairs and sparsely distributed, erect pale sensilla. Pronotum: black, moderately wider than long (Pl/Pw 0.73), semidensely, very finely, evenly punctured, punctures tiny, round, of approximately equal size, spaces between punctures larger or of same width as puncture diameter; covered with densely arranged, variously oriented, subrecumbent to suberect, elongate (l/w 4–8), grayish scales; widest at base, in basal part moderately, in anterior part distinctly conically narrowed to anterior margin, without constriction, in lateral view in basal half flat, then falling to anterior margin. Prosternum: anterior margin with relatively narrow, sharply incised semicircular emargination without bounding tubercles, separated from coxae by very narrow strip of prosternum. Scutellum: triangular, with relatively sharp apex, covered with thin scales, densely punctured. Elytra: black to dark brown, in basal 2/3 moderately rounded, in apical third broadly evenly rounded, short (El/Ew 1.13), widest at about 1/3 of their length, at base somewhat wider than pronotum (Ew/Pw 1.62), humeri subrotund, moderately prominent, with indistinct posthumeral impression; slightly convex on disc; interstria 1 in 1/3 of medial length and in preapical area broadened, interstria 2 at same lengths narrowed and constricted laterally encompassing round to subrotund black tomentous maculae without differently colored scale bor- der; interstriae except perimacular areas of equal width; odd interstriae, especially in posterior part, with unevenly distributed, sparse large patches of black scales, without patches of light scales; striae shallow to indistinct, formed by confluently arranged, somewhat uneven single rows of punctures; entire surface covered with dense, recumbent to subrecumbent, elongate (l/w 4–8), tipped grayish scales almost completely concealing integument; all interstriae with uneven rows of suberect to erect grayish, in black patches black seta-like scales being approximately as long as interstriae width. Venter: on sides densely covered with elongate whitish scales, in median longitudinal part with more sparsely distributed whitish hairs, without distinct clusters of scales; mesosternal process flat, broad, with shallow emargination at posterior margin, very densely punctured, with hairs; metasternum flat to concave in posterior part, transversally punctured and ribbed; ventrite 1 and anterior part of ventrite 2 with deep, relatively narrow, transversally confluently punctured impression; ventrite 1 almost twice as long as ventrite 2, ventrites 1–2 combined 5.2 × as long as ventrites 3–4 combined, ventrites 3–4 combined of 0.8 length of ventrite 5. Legs: black to dark brown, basal part of onychia and partially also tarsomere 3 lighter, profemora with small teeth emphasized by erect scales, meso- and metafemora with very sharp subtriangular large teeth; femora covered with somewhat unevenly distributed subrecumbent grayish scales, tibiae with suberect grayish and rare intermixed black scales, tarsomeres 1–3 with suberect whitish seta-like scales, onychia with recumbent, long whitish hairs; protarsal onychia slightly longer than tarsomeres 1–3 combined, protarsal tarsomere 3 as long as wide; protarsal lateral claws of almost half length of medial ones, meso- and metatarsal medial claws by approximately 1/3 shorter than their pair-claws. Penis: Figs 57 d–f, its body medium long, with slightly convergent sides, narrowly rounded at apex.

Variability. Length ♂♂ 4.04–4.56 mm, ♀♀ 4.29–4.90 mm. This species shows variability in the elytral pattern, especially in the number and size of patches of black scales on odd interstriae, and in the color of elytra and legs.

Diagnosis. This species is recognizable by almost concealed elytral integument, medium long, erect, seta-like scales on all elytral interstriae, subrotund short shape of elytra, grayish color of the vestiture, and penis shape.

Comparative notes. Cionus wittei is most closely related to C. merkli , from which it differs by distinctly shorter erect seta-like scales on elytra.

Biological notes. Biology unknown.

Distribution. Eastern Bulgaria (Arkutino, Michurin, Boljarovo, Zvezdets, Primorsko, Burgas, Varna), Turkey (Menderes), Lebanon (Beyruth, 1 ♂ ISZP), Israel (many places). Weill et al. (2011) reported additionally Syria.

Non-type specimens examined. We examined 68 specimens from all localities mentioned above except Syria.

Figures

FIGURES 57–58. FIGURE 57. Cionus wittei. 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 58. Cionus variegatus. 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.