Cyrtetes, Kuschel, 2008

Kuschel, Guillermo, 2008, Curculionoidea (weevils) of New Caledonia and Vanuatu: Basal families and some Curculionidae, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 197, pp. 99-250 : 168-169

Genus CYRTETES n. gen.

Type species: C. spiritus n. sp.

DESCRIPTION. — Eyes small, round, strongly protruding, hemispherical, with a sulcus against forehead. Rostrum parallel-sided, separated from forehead by a deep, curved, uninterrupted transverse sulcus, in lateral view, dorsally discontinuous, with a distinct tubercle above antennal insertions, with a few scales on tubercle but no scales on steeply descending prorostrum, ventrally, at gular angle, distinctly constricted prementum with a pair of setae. Scape slender, gradually, gently widening apicad at distal one-third; all segment of funicle elongate, first two of equal length; club fusiform, as long as preceding three segments of funicle. Prothorax rounded on sides, rather strongly convex longitudinally, with fine granules and coarse puncta, with somewhat raised midline. Elytra elongate-oval, in lateral view upper outline discontinuous with pronotum, strongly convex across basal one-quarter. Striae distinct, not as wide as interstriae, not sulcate, puncta bare except for seta; stria 10 approaching 9 beside hind coxae; interstria 3 at basal one-quarter and interstriae 4-6 towards end of dorsum convex. Fore coxae antemedian, narrowly apart. Meosternal process a little wider than long; mesepimeron against head of metepisternum flat; metepisternal suture visible as a short anterior sulcus. Femora strongly pedunculate and clavate; fore and middle tibiae curved. Scales not distinctly pitted at 50 x. Granules present on pronotum and elytra.

DISTRIBUTION. — Vanuatu.

ETYMOLOGY. — The name ‘cyrtétes’ is Greek from ‘kyrtos’ for convex, and the suffix -etes for the Celeuthetes group

of genera, as pronotum and elytra are dorsally rather strongly convex in lateral view.

REMARKS. — By using Marshall’s (1956) paper on Celeuthetini , Cyrtetes would key out to Levoecus , but Levoecus has elongate, weakly protruding eyes, no sulcus against the forehead, no tubercle above the antennal insertions, no gular constriction and no raised interstriae.