Euwallacea perbrevis (Schedl)

Rabaglia, Robert J., Beaver, Roger A., Johnson, Andrew J., Schmaedick, Mark A. & Smith, Sarah M., 2020, The bark and ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae and Platypodinae) of American Samoa, Zootaxa 4808 (1), pp. 171-195 : 181

Euwallacea perbrevis (Schedl)

Xyleborus perbrevis Schedl, 1951b: 59 .

Euwallacea perbrevis (Schedl) : Wood 1989: 173 (as a synonym of E. fornicatus ).

Gomez et al. (2018) and Smith et al. (2019) used molecular and morphometric data to distinguish the species in the Euwallacea fornicatus complex. Specimens from trapping in this survey were determined to match both the molecular and most morphological characteristics of E. perbrevis . The species occurs throughout the Oriental region eastwards to New Guinea, Australia and Fiji, and has been introduced into the United States (Florida and Hawaii) and Central America ( Smith et al. 2019). These specimens of E. perbrevis exhibited unusual morphology compared to those from its native range in mainland Asia and introduced populations in Hawaii, Panama and Florida, all of which had been previously used to generate diagnoses for the species in the complex ( Gomez et al. 2018; Smith et al. 2019). American Samoan E. perbrevis are stouter than previously reported and specimens range between 2.22–2.38 times as long as wide vs 2.46–2.55 ( Smith et al. 2019). It is probable that geographic isolation on these Pacific islands has led to this unique morphology thus making diagnoses of these species challenging without confirmation with molecular data.

Current survey records: American Samoa: Tutuila Isl.: Aoa, Auto, Fagaalu, Fagaitua, Iliili, Leone, Malaeimi, Maloata, Mapusagafou, Masausi, Tafuna.