Embates nigronotatus (Champion)

Prena, Jens, 2005, The Middle American species of Embates Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Baridinae), Zootaxa 1100 (1), pp. 1-151 : 1-151

18. Embates nigronotatus (Champion)

(Fig. 79, 243)

Ambates nigronotatus Champion 1907: 163 . Holotype male, Guatemala, labeled: “Type”, “ ♂ ”, “sp. figured”, “Zapote/ Guatemala / G. Champion” (BMNH). O’Brien & Wibmer 1982 (cat.); Hustache 1938 (cat.)

Embates [ nigronotatus ]. Alonso­Zarazaga & Lyal 1999 (global combination of all species of Ambates Schönherr 1836 with Embates Chevrolat 1833 )

Redescription. Habitus: Fig. 1 , total length 5.3–5.8 mm (n=2). Color: integument piceous, basic vestiture of brown and beige scales, the latter variously clustered; elytra with oblique, pear­shaped macula of black velvety scales immediately behind middle (Fig. 79); scales beige to ochreous in dorsolateral pronotal vitta, around elytral macula and on flank. Head: frontal fovea absent, rostrum moderately thick, subcylindrical, costate dorsomedially, basolateral margin edged, length of rostrum ♂ 1.18 x, ♀ 1.28 x pronotal length, length of ante­antennal portion ♂ 0.35 x, ♀ 0.40 x total rostral length, dorsal margin of antennal scrobe reaching rostral base well before eye; funicular segment 2 longer than 1, club oblong ovate. Pronotum: length 0.87–0.90 x (n=2) maximum width, widest in basal third, frontal portion tubulate; disk densely and moderately deeply punctate, intervals granulose or rugose. Elytra: length 1.81–1.85 x (n=2) width at humeri, width 1.33–1.35 x (n=2) maximum pronotal width, sides subparallel in basal half, then gradually narrowed toward apex, apices rounded conjointly, preapical callus developed moderately, striae fine, punctures indistinct, interstriae flat, 7 (at preapical callus) and 9 costate. Legs: tibiae nearly straight and parallel­sided, ventral margin of metatibia distally with cluster of cupreous hairs, tarsal claws curved and separate at base. Male: not examined.

Plant association. Not known.

Distribution. Guatemala, Pacific side (Fig. 243).

Material examined. GUATEMALA. Guatemala: Zapote ( BMNH) . Suchitepequez: Zapotitlán , Finca Las Nubes, 1525 m ( CWOB) . Total 2 specimens. Provisionally, I include here following similar but larger specimens: MEXICO. Oaxaca: Hwy. 175, 25 km S Valle Nacional, 1600 m ( CWOB) . Chiapas: 10.2 km E Rayon ( JPPC) . GUATEMALA. Alta Verapaz: 51 km SE Coban , 2000 m ( CWOB) .

Discussion. Embates nigronotatus belongs to the E. biguttatus complex. I include here two specimens from the Pacific side of Guatemala and, in the wider sense, three notably larger specimens from the Atlantic side of Guatemala and Mexico with the antenna inserted further basad. All differ from E. biguttatus by the broader post­macular fascia and the resulting narrower shape of the elytral macula. The status of the three large­sized specimens is as unclear as that of similarly aberrant specimens found in E. bicoctura and E. ocellatus . Embates mendax and E. paucilimbatus occur along the slopes of the Cordilleras Central and Talamanca, and seem to be isolated geographically from E. nigronotatus and E. biguttatus by the Nicaraguan lowlands. Specimens of E. ocellatus can be distinguished from E. nigronotatus by the consistently narrow circumambient macular line and more distally inserted antenna.

Figures

FIGURES 1–12. E. caecus: 1, habitus and color­pattern, dorsal; 2, thorax and abdomen, ventral; 3, posterior tergites, dorsal; 4, head and prothorax, lateral; 5, metafemur and tibia; 6, sternite 8, male; 7, sternite 9, male; 8, tegmen; 9, apex of aedeagus, dorsal; 10, aedeagus, lateral; 11, sternite 8, female; 12, female genital tract, lateral