Strabonus albiscutum, 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 : 188

Strabonus albiscutum n. sp.

Fig. 81

DESCRIPTION. — Black, elytra and prothorax with faint bluish sheen, antennae and legs brown. Prothorax with fine pubescence, this denser at base than elsewhere; elytra glabrous except for few fine hairs at apical margin; legs and abdomen with more conspicuous and longer pubescence; scutellum and metepisternum white with elongate scales, occasionally with white scales also between eyes on the forehead.

Head with few minute puncta above and behind forehead. Forehead in male narrower than club of scape, in female as wide as club of scape. Rostrum in lateral view dorsally convex, ventrally flat, deeper above antennal insertion in male than female; postrostrum nearly smooth in both sexes, with a rather deep sulcus alongside scrobes; prorostrum distinctly longer than wide, nearly smooth. Scape reaching eyes, not passing front margin of eyes; funicle thin, segment 2 as long as the three following segments combined; club as long as last five segments of funicle.

Prothorax 1.3 x wider than long, rather coarsely punctate, with a small smooth area on midline, puncta not coalescent. Scutellum contrastingly white.

Elytra a little over 1.4 x wider than prothorax, about 1.28 x longer than combined breath, in profile moderately deep, with hint of a hump. Striae 1 and 2 complete, others obsolete or obsolescent at declivity; stria 10 with five or six puncta at base, beyond impunctate showing as a finely engraved line. Interstriae as wide as or wider than striae, appearing smooth at 50 x. Femora with a minute tooth; hind femora not extending to end of abdomen.

Male and female not dissected.

Length: 1.6-2.1 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype female, 2.1 x 1.0 mm, Pic du Pin, 25.XI.2004, S. G. Wright , MNHN. Paratypes with NZAC, QMBA .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. 1 female, Pic du Pin , 6.X.1978, beating, J. C. Watt; 3 males, 2 females, Pic du Pin, 22°14’S, 166°50’E, 280 m, 25.XI.2004, S. G. Wright. 6 specimens .

ETYMOLOGY. — The noun ‘albiscútum’ is a compound drawing attention to the conspicuously white scutellum of the species.

REMARKS. — S. albiscutum differs, apart from the characters in the key, by having a scape that does not extend beyond the front margin of eyes.