Xyloctonus aethiops 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 aethiops Schedl, 1953

Figs 43 , 45 , 47 , 48

Xyloctonus aethiops Xyloctonus aethiops Schedl, 1953: 77.

Xyloctonus stenographus Schedl, 1961a, synonymy by Menier (1974).

Type material.

Lectotype, X. aethiops : Madagascar, Ankorika [-12.24, 49.36], K. E. Schedl, 1951 [MNHN]. Holotype of X. stenographus : Madagascar, Perinet [-18.93, 48.41], 28. XI. 1952, Dr. K. E. Schedl [MNHN].

Diagnosis.

Length 1.3-1.6 mm, 2.0 × as long as wide, colour dark brown; vertex with faint (false) pars stridens; antennal club with two visible procurved sutures; anterior margin of pronotum with four raised teeth, median teeth longest; elytral interstriae 9 curves before apex and continues to elytral suture; elytral interstriae elevated, flattened, carinated on and near declivity only; scutellar shield transversely oval; elytral suture straight. Ventrite I swollen on median third of its posterior margin, ventrite II with four spines along the posterior margin.

Distribution.

Madagascar.

New record.

Madagascar, Andasibe, Mantadia National Park [-18.861, 48.447], 900 m alt. 15 May 2015, ex Uapaca twig, B. Jordal, leg. [ZMUB].

Biology.

Two collections from known host were both in the same plant family Phyllanthaceae : Wielandia mimosoides (originally in Savia ) ( Schedl 1977)) and Uapaca sp. This is the only Xyloctonus that cut their egg tunnels parallel to the grain of the wood. Three broods with larvae were dissected from a thin twig of 1 cm thickness and were without parents present. Brood size ranged between 21 and 28 (n = 3).

Figures

Figures 43 - 49. Dorsal, lateral and front view declivity and venter with strong spines, of X. aethiops (43, 45, 47, 48); X. quadricinctus, holotype (44, 46, 49).