Sciaphobus (Neosciaphobus) scheibeli Apfelbeck, 1922

Borovec, Roman & Skuhrovec, Jiří, 2015, A review of Sciaphobus (Neosciaphobus) and descriptions of new species of Sciaphobus s. str. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 55 (2), pp. 745-785 : 763-765

Sciaphobus (Neosciaphobus) scheibeli Apfelbeck, 1922

( Figs 2A–D , 4G–H , 5D )

Sciaphobus (Neosciaphobus) Scheibeli Apfelbeck,1922:66 (original description); WINKLER (1932):1469 (catalogue); DALLA TORRE et al. (1937): 163 (catalogue); BOROVEC (2013): 385 (catalogue).

Type locality. ‘Mokragora [ Serbia, Zlatibor District, Mokra Gora]’.

Type material examined. LECTOTYPE (here designated): J (4.75 mm long, missing left middle leg), ‘Mokragora Apflb. 5-21 [printed] / Serbien [handwritten] / Syntypus [red, printed] / Sciaphobus Scheibeli Apf. Typ n.sp. [Apfel- beck’s hadwriting] / DEI Müncheberg Col – 00122 [green, printed] / Sciaphobus scheibeli Apf. [handwritten] / LECTOTYPUS Sciaphobus scheibeli Apfelbeck, R. Borovec et J. Skuhrovec desig. 2014 [red, printed]’ ( SDEI). PARALECTOTYPE: J, ‘Mokragora Apflb. 5-21 [printed] / Serbien [handwritten] / Syntypus [red, printed] / Coll. O. Leonhard [printed] / Sciaphobus Scheibeli Apf. Typ n.sp. [Apfelbeck’s hadwriting] / DEI Müncheberg Col – 00123 [green, printed] / Sciaphobus scheibeli Apf. [handwritten] / PARALECTOTYPUS Sciaphobus scheibeli Apfelbeck, R. Borovec et J. Skuhrovec desig. 2014 [red, printed]’ ( SDEI).

Additional material examined. SERBIA: ZLATIBOR: Mokra Gora , 1 ♀, Apfelbeck lgt. ( RBSC) ; Šargan planina Mts., 2 JJ, Scheibel lgt. ( ZSMG) .

Redescription ( Figs 2A–D , 4G–H , 5D ). Body length 4.38–5.81 mm. Body black, antennae and legs reddish, femora except for knees dark brownish to blackish. Elytra with long oval, pointed, large, appressed and isolated scales, moderately sparsely distributed, leaving narrow space among them, 4–5 scales across one elytral interval; elytral interval 1 on declivity and elytral interval 7 densely squamose with scales completely hiding integument, thus elytral interval 7 with 6 scales across one interval; scales on disc grey greenish or green with bronze sheen, lateral elytral intervals starting with interval 7 bright green. Pronotum with long oval, pointed appressed scales in lateral part larger, on the disc smaller than elytral ones, transversally directed; lateral scales dense, green, forming ill-defined stripes; scales on disc sparse, with bronze sheen and with irregularly scattered brownish piliform adherent setae. Head and rostrum with scales smaller than elytral ones, sparse, obliquely directed posteriad, scales in lateral parts long oval, pointed, in middle part of rostrum and head slender, almost piliform.

Head ( Figs 2A–D , 4G–H ). Rostrum short, 1.10–1.20× as wide as long; in basal half weakly tapered anteriad with straight sides, in apical half distinctly enlarged anteriad, with slightly rounded sides, at apex 1.10–1.20× as wide as at base. Frons large, flat, shiny, almost glabrous, only with several small punctures. Epifrons regularly punctate with moderately coarse punctures, somewhat matt. Interocular space with narrow longitudinal fovea. Eyes large, flat, barely projecting beyond outline of head.

Antennae in females slenderer than in males; in males segment I 1.7–1.8× as long as wide; segment II 1.1× as long as segment I and 2.4–2.5× as long as wide; segments III–VI 1.8× as long as wide; segment VII 1.4× as long as wide; in females segment I 2.1–2.2× as long as wide; segment II 1.1× as long as segment I and 2.7–2.8× as long as wide; segments III and IV 2.2–2.4 × as long as wide; segments V and VI 1.8× as long as wide; segment VII 1.6–1.7× as long as wide; clubs 2.6–2.7× as long as wide.

Pronotum ( Figs 2A–D ) short and wide, 1.32–1.40× as wide as long, widest at midlength, with weakly rounded sides, anteriad more tapered than posteriad; disc densely and regularly punctate, distance between two punctures smaller than puncture diamater, space between punctures shiny; middle part with thin, ill-defined and impunctate shiny area.

Scutellum small, subtriangular, glabrous.

Elytra ( Figs 2A–D ) narrow, 1.46–1.53× as long as wide, widest at midlength, with weakly rounded sides, in basal half with almost straight sides; humeral calli shortly obliquely subtruncated at base, weakly projecting laterally; striae wide, glabrous; intervals moderately narrow, almost flat.

Legs. All femora in both sexes unarmed. Inner side of metatibia in males with conspicuous brush of dense, long, erect, yellowish setae, while females have metatibia without similar brush, only with several short, sparse semierect setae. Tarsomere II isodiametric; tarsomere III 1.4–1.5× as wide as long and 1.6–1.7× as wide as II; onychium equally long as tarsomere III.

Sexual dimorphism. For more details see antennae, and metatibia.

Male genitalia. Aedeagus ( Fig. 5D ) widest at base in ventral view, in whole length with slightly concave sides, apex slender, elongated, pointed, with weakly concave sides; regularly curved in lateral view, equally wide in whole length, apex elongated, pointed, with moderately large, distinct denticle at apex. Parameres solidly fused in basal half.

Female genitalia. Spermatheca ( Fig. 6D ) c-shaped; cornu short, regularly curved; corpus short; ramus small, rounded, isodiametric; nodulus very small, hump-shaped.

Differential diagnosis. Easily distinguished by the bright greenish scales on lateral elytral intervals ( Figs 2A–D ), all femora unarmed, flat eyes ( Figs 4G–H ) and long setae on inner apical part of metatibiae in males. The last character is unique within the whole subgenus. The only other species with unarmed femora is S. (N.) squalidus , which differs in following characters (characters of S. (N.) scheibeli in parentheses): eyes convex, distinctly projecting beyond outline of the head ( Figs 4I, J ) (eyes flat, barely projecting ( Figs 4G, H )); rostrum slender and long ( Figs 6I, J ) (wide and short ( Figs 4G, H )); elytral intervals 6–10 with grey scales, scales on interval 7 equally sparse as on other intervals, scales not hiding integument ( Figs 2E–H ) (intervals 7–10 with green scales, scales on interval 7 denser than on other intervals, hiding integument ( Figs 2B, D )) and elytral striae inconspicuous, narrow (conspicuous, wide).

Distribution. Serbia ( BOROVEC 2013).

Remarks. APFELBECK (1922) did not mentioned exact number of specimens he had at disposal, however, he gave length span and discussed variability. Additionally he stated that he had seen material collected by O. Scheibel and that he collected additional specimen(s) on the same locallity: ‘ Serbia merid. occ. (Mokragora). Bei Mokragora, östlich von Vardište, von Herrn Ingenieur O. Scheibel entdeckt, heuer auch von mir dort gesammelt.’ Thus it is evident that he had more than one specimen at disposal. We examined two male specimens deposited in SDEI and we have no doubt they belong to the original type series as part of Apfelbeckʼs collection was acquired by SDEI via collection of O. Leonhard. We designate a lectotype from a well-preserved and scaled specimen, just missing the left middle leg, to stabilize the nomenclature in the group.

Figures

Fig. 2. Habitus of Neosciaphobus species. Sciaphobus scheibeli Apfelbeck, 1922: male (A – dorsal view, B – lateral view), female (C – dorsal view, D – lateral view); S. squalidus (Gyllenhal, 1834): male (E – dorsal view, F – lateral view), female (G – dorsal view, H – lateral view); S. subnudus (Desbrochers des Loges, 1892): male (I – dorsal view, J – lateral view), female (K – dorsal view, L – lateral view).

Fig. 4. Rostra of Neosciaphobus and Sciaphobus (s. str.) species: Sciaphobus angustus sp. nov., holotype, male (A); S. globipennis Apfelbeck, 1922, male (B), female (C); S. ningnidus (Germar, 1824), female (D); S. reitteri (Stierlin, 1884), male (E), female (F); S. scheibeli Apfelbeck, 1922, male (G), female (H); S. squalidus (Gyllenhal, 1834), male (I), female (J); S. subnudus (Desbrochers des Loges, 1892), male (K), female (L); S. vittatus (Gyllenhal, 1834), male (M), female (N); S. abbreviatus (Desbrochers des Loges, 1871), male (O), female (P); S. dorsualis (Gyllenhal, 1834), male (Q), female (R); S. formaneki sp. nov., holotype, male (S), paratype, female (T); S. pelikani sp. nov., holotype, male (U), paratype, female (V); S. rasus (Seidlitz, 1867), male (W), female (Y).

Fig. 5. Aedeagus of Neosciaphobus and Sciaphobus (s. str.) species; Sciaphobus angustus sp. nov., holotype (A); S. globipennis Apfelbeck, 1922 (B); S. reitteri (Stierlin, 1884) (C); S. scheibeli Apfelbeck, 1922 (D); S. squalidus (Gyllenhal, 1834) (E); S. subnudus (Desbrochers des Loges, 1892) (F); S. vittatus (Gyllenhal, 1834) (G); S. abbreviatus (Desbrochers de Loges, 1871) (H); S. dorsualis (Gyllenhal, 1834) (I); S. formaneki sp. nov.: holotype (J); S. pelikani sp. nov.: holotype (K); S. rasus (Seidlitz, 1867) (L).

Fig. 6. Spermatheca, male tegmen and sternite IX, female ovipositor and sternite VIII of Neosciaphobus and Sciaphobus (s. str.) species; Spermatheca of Sciaphobus globipennis Apfelbeck, 1922 (A); S. ningnidus (Germar, 1824) (B); S. reitteri (Stierlin, 1884) (C); S. scheibeli Apfelbeck, 1922 (D); S. squalidus (Gyllenhal, 1834) (E); S. subnudus (Desbrochers des Loges, 1892) (F); S. vittatus (Gyllenhal, 1834) (G); S. formaneki sp. nov.: paratype (H); S. pelikani sp. nov.: paratype (I); S. rasus (Seidlitz, 1867) (J). Tegmen of Sciaphobus scheibeli (K); S. vittatus (L). Male sternite IX of Sciaphobus scheibeli (M). Ovipositor of Sciaphobus ningnidus (N). Female sternite VIII of Sciaphobus ningnidus (O).