Laparocerus heres, Machado, Antonio, 2007

Machado, Antonio, 2007, New species of Laparocerus Schönherr, 1834 from La Gomera, Canary Islands (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Entiminae), Zootaxa 1643, pp. 1-38 : 29-34

Laparocerus heres n. sp.

(Figures 2 C, 14 E–F–G, 17 B, and 18 L)

Dimensions, holotype (ɗ). Length: total (without rostrum) 3.4 mm, head 0.78 mm, rostrum 0.40 mm, scape 0.80, mm, funicle 0.80 mm, segments (1st/ 2nd/ 3rd/ 4th) 0.16 /0.16 /0.11 / 0.10 mm, club 0.37 mm, eyes 0.16, pronotum 0.86 mm, elytra 2.30 mm, tibiae (fore /mid /hind) 0.90 /0.76 / 0.91 mm. Width: head (with eyes) 0.73 mm, head (between eyes) 0.48 mm, rostrum (with pterygia) 0.50 mm, rostrum (minimum dorsal /ventral) 0.30 mm / 0.49 mm, rostrum (base) 0.44 mm, scape (maximum) 0.12 mm, club 0.13 mm, pronotum (anterior /maximum /posterior) 0.86 /1.02 / 0.90 mm, elytra (maximum) 2.30 mm. Height: abdomen 1.16 mm.

Male. Length 3.2– 3.4 mm, oblong-elongate, flattened on disc of pronotum and elytra; piceous, antennae and tarsi somewhat ferrugineous. Integument shiny, coarsely punctate, clothed with light-olive, lanceolate, decumbent scales, on elytra in variegated pattern, with abundant additional short, arcuate, dark setae. Antenna robust, relatively short; scape slightly shorter than pronotum, clavate, slightly arcuate, very strongly incrassate from base on (as broad as other segments), flattened basally; funicle as long as scape; 1st and 2nd segments equal; club fusiform, thin, much longer than three previous segments combined. Head robust, conical; rostrum short, strongly constricted dorsally (0.60×), base of antenna totally exposed; prorostrum variably defined (usually not smooth); epistomal keel complete; pterygia slightly prominent. Metarostrum slightly convergent apicad, slightly V-canaliculate. Frons not depressed, lateral edge weakly defined, convex; median fovea linear, short, not very deep (if extended, a shallow line). Eyes circular, moruliform, fairly small (diameter 1/3 of interocular distance), placed at middle of head in profile, in crater-like depression (i.e. periocular sulcus broad, complete), very protruding (convexity 56%), subconical, with vertex slightly shifted backwards. Dorsal and ventral integument coarsely punctate. Pronotum slightly transverse (L/W ratio 0.86), disc flattened, sides weakly and evenly curved, maximum width at middle; anterior margin slightly elevated, shortly incised at mid-point; submarginal depression barely visible; posterior margin rimmed. Surface shiny, covered by regular mix of decumbent, lanceolate, thin, hair-like scales, punctures large, deep, longitudinally elongate, closely packed, very conspicuous. No median line. Scutellum small, acute, clothed with tuft of clear scales. Elytra oblong (L/W ratio 1.53), dorsal profile flat (transverse convexity of abdomen 56%); base straight, shoulders hardly prominent, humeral angle rounded; sides uniformly arcuate, maximum width at middle; 2.7 × longer than pronotum. Striae impressed, subcanaliculate, punctures deep, each with a scale, separated by less than 1/2 diameter. Intervals subconvex, 3rd often slightly more convex basally, uniformly beset with rows of recurved, dark setae longer than claws, protruding from dense vestiture of decumbent, light-olive and darker lanceolate scales arranged in variegated pattern (no clear mosaic-pattern). Integument with coarse microasperity. Legs robust, tibiae straight, clavate; apex of protibia externally rounded, internally expanded into acute angle, with strong mucro; meso- and metatibia each with mucro; anterior and posterior fringing setae of tibial face fairly long; grooming setal brush short. Ve n te r shiny, with sparser cover of recumbent, hair-like scales (denser in middle of mesosternum) and large, shallow punctures all over; intermesocoxal ridge moderately developed, convex; last ventrite broadly rounded at apex. Aedeagus (fig. 14E–F) fairly simple, in profile straight and flat, arcuate only in apical third; temones very short, constriction between these and median lobe weakly marked, apex digitiform in profile, broadly rounded dorsally. Internal sac short and simple, without frenum; a single basal field of long denticles with a small detached group; muscular sheath beset with denticles. Tegmen with short parameres.

Female. As male but larger and broader (length 3.5–4.5 mm). Eyes somewhat smaller; preocular genae more bulging. Elytra broader (L/W ratio 1.40), more parallel-sided; shoulders clearly prominent, rounded; intervals less convex, punctures shallower. Pro- and mesotibia each with minuscule mucro. Last ventrite apically shortly truncate. Ventrite VIII as in fig. 17B, with bell-shaped plate, spermatheca as in fig. 18L. Styli long, terminal (fig. 14G).

Etymology. The specific epithet is a noun in apposition, from the Latin heres (the heir) and named for the film The Hellstrom Chronicle (directed by Walon Green and Ed Spiegel, 1971), in which the insects are considered to become the heirs of the Earth.

Remarks. Laparocerus heres is hard to confuse with other known Laparocerus species due to its strongly incrassate, clavate scape and small, moruloid eyes laterally placed in a crater-like depression in the middle of the head. It may resemble at first sight also the genus Lichenophagus Wollaston, 1854 , as presently interpreted, and its genital features also suggest such an affinity. However, the lanceolate scales are typical of Laparocerus , and unpublished molecular data reveal the closest relatives to be L. exophthalmus and L. inflatus Wollaston, 1865 , both Gomeran species. Specimens of L. heres from Tenerife have a similar aedeagus as those from La Gomera, but show minor though constant external differences that seems to justified the recognition of this differentiated island population as a distinct subspecies.