Viticis aspersus (Montrouzier) 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 : 194

Viticis aspersus (Montrouzier) n. comb. ( Pachyrhynchus )

Fig. 87

Pachyrhynchus ? aspersus Montrouzier, 1861a: 877 .

DESCRIPTION. — Large eyes, absence of frontal elevations, a weak or no depression across rostral base, legs and antennae of same overall colour of body, femur with only one large tooth, and absence of even remnant of a claw segment, these characters taken together define V. aspersus from all species of the genus. It differs from the species of Vanuatu in having femora with only one large tooth, and in lacking a distinct frontal elevation. Only two specimens with very different vestiture and general appearance are present, one from Lifou I., Loyalty Is, the other from the main island of New Caledonia .

The only known original specimen is from Lifou I. It looks in patterns just like V. aeratus (Morimoto 1883) from Japan illustrated in figure 1B with the exception that the lateral ‘vitta’ of the prothorax is uninterrupted in V. aspersus , and that the sutural interstriae seem to have two rows of scales from just before the middle to the apex, the rows separated by a fine black line. The other specimen from the main island has no scales except for a little coppery or green patch above eyes, a patch on the rostrum on either side of midline, a patch on pterygia, and sparse scales on mesepisternum, mesepimeron, metepisternum and sides of metasternum, and some lineal scales on gular area, pronotum and legs. The type specimen also has a black dot above the eyes, representing, apparently, an incipient tubercle whichcan be seen in a more obvious way on figure 2B of V. maculatus in Morimoto’s (1983) paper.

TYPE MATERIAL. — No locality or numbers given in the original paper. The only original specimen is here designated as: lectotype, 2.0 x 0.9 mm, Lifou, type, Eutinophoea adspersa [sic] Montr., Coll. Fauvel, IRSN. Handwritings by Fauvel. The specimen had been pinned and then mounted on a card, breaking in the process the left elytron and losing the abdomen. The second specimen, tentatively considered to be conspecific, is in E. C. Zimmerman Coll., CSIRO, Canberra .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. 1 spec., Hienghène , 5.X.1940, F. X. Williams; 1 specimen, Loyalty Is: Lifou, Montrouzier .