Strabonus glabratus, 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 : 189

Strabonus glabratus n. sp.

Fig. 82

DESCRIPTION. — Shiny black, elytra with slight or intense blue sheen; elytra at apex and last ventrites with dark pubescence; prosternum with sparse white hairs, mesosternal process with dense white hairs; prothorax with a white stripe of dense scales on either side, similar white scales forming a patch on outer side of fore coxa.

Head anteriorly shiny, sparsely punctulate, slightly alutaceous behind. Frons separated by 3 x the width of scape. Rostrum 0.74-0.77 x the length of prothorax, straight, depressed; postrostrum moderately punctate on either side, with a sulcus against scrobes; prerostrum a little wider than long, indistinctly punctate. Scape extending to about anterior third of eyes, weakly to distinctly compressed; funicle with segment 2 shorter than 1, shorter than 3 + 4; club as long as preceding six segments combined.

Prothorax a fraction longer than wide, sparsely, finely punctate. Scutellum smooth, glabrous.

Elytra 1.43 x wider than prothorax, 1.29-1.36 x longer than their combined width, broadened towards middle, then rounded off to a broad apex; in lateral view deep, almost humped. Striae complete, deeply sulcate from before middle; stria 10 with seven coarse puncta at base, followed by a fine engraved line. Interstriae distinctly punctate, with one row of puncta. Mesepisternum smooth; mesepimeron with few shallow puncta; metepisternum with a row of puncta, these nearly as coarse as those on sides of metasternum.

All femora with a strong tooth of similar size. Last three ventrites punctulate; ventrite 5 broadly smooth on midline.

Male: not dissected.

Female: not dissected.

Length: 2.0- 2.9 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype female, 2.4 x 1.2 mm, Mt. Koghi , NZAC. Paratypes with BPBM, MNHW, NZAC, QMBA, SRFP .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. 2 females, Mandjélia , les, Aoupinié , sawmill, 500 m, 2.I.2005, G. B. Monteith; 1 female, 20°24’S, 164°32’E, 780 m, 13.XII.2004, G. B. Monteith; 1female, Mt. Mou , 3.III.1963, N L H Krauss; 2 females, Mt. Mou , 22°04S, 1 km SW of Mandjélia, 730 m, 5.I.2005, G. B. Monteith; 1 female, 166°21’E, 1170 m (summit saddle), 27-29.XII.2004, G. B. Mon- Mandjélia (Ouégoa), 8.II.2005, S. Cazères & C. Mille; 2 males, 3 teith; 2 females, Mt. Koghi , 500 m, 27.I.1963, G. Kuschel; 3 males, females, Mt. Panié, 1200-1300 m, 2.II.2004, M. Wanat; 2 fema- 4 females, Haute Rivière Bleue, 180-330 m, 22-23.II.2004, M. Wales, Aoupinié, 900-950 m, 8.II.2004, M. Wanat; 1 male, Aoupinié, nat; 1 female, Forêt Nord (Bot. Reserve), 22°19’S, 166°55’E, 200 21°09’S, 165°19’E, 500 m, 17.XII.2004, G. B. Monteith; 2 ma- m, 15.II.2004, M. Wanat. 27 specimens .

ETYMOLOGY. — The Latin epithet ‘glabrátus’is given to a bare looking species.

REMARKS. — The paratype, probably collected at or above 900 m of altitude; it differs in having the interstriae transversely strigose posteriorly, and elytra of a bright, intense blue.