Arixyleborus iriani Browne, 1983

Smith, Sarah M., Beaver, Roger A. & Cognato, Anthony I., 2020, Taxonomic Changes For Indo-Malayan Ambrosia Beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae: Xyleborini), The Coleopterists Bulletin 74 (1), pp. 37-40 : 38

Arixyleborus iriani Browne, 1983 , status restored

Arixyleborus iriani Browne 1983: 560 .

Hulcr and Cognato (2013) placed A. iriani in synonymy with Arixyleborus abruptus Schedl, 1975 , stating that the two species are nearly identical except that A. iriani has scales on the declivital interstriae and flat interstria 1, while A. abruptus has fine setae and convex interstria 1. These differences were considered minor aberrations and, therefore, conspecific. We examined the holotype of A. iriani (in Natural History Museum) and compared it with a specimen from Papua New Guinea, which had earlier been compared with the holotype of A. abruptus (in Naturhistorisches Museum). In addition to the aforementioned setal difference, the declivital slope also differs between the two species, with that of A. iriani appearing steeply rounded, while that of A. abruptus appears obliquely truncate. The combination of these differences warrants recognition of A. iriani as these characters are invariable within species of Arixyleborus Hopkins, 1915 ( Smith et al. 2019).