Ericiates, Colonnelli, 2014

Colonnelli, Enzo, 2014, Apionidae, Nanophyidae, Brachyceridae and Curculionidae except Scolytinae (Coleoptera) from Socotra Island, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54, pp. 295-422 : 349-350

Ericiates gen. nov.

Type species. Ericiates cinereus sp. nov., by present designation.

Description. Size not exceeding 3.8 mm. Vestiture of dense roundish scales intermingled on head and pronotum with poorly visible almost recumbent curved hair-like ones, elytral intervals with row of long erect seta-like barely curved slightly capitate scales starting from base. Rostrum relatively short, slightly widening apically, pterygia moderately developed. Epifrons with sides converging forward and abruptly angularly sloping on sides, dorsum fairly convex and with weak carina completely concealed by scaling, at base with deep thin V-shaped transverse sulcus, level of epifrons higher than that of head. Epistome broadly subtriangular, separated from epifrons by smooth depression. Mentum bisetose. Mandibles trisetose. Head short, punctate, scrobes almost entirely visible from above, pterygia well developed and closed forward, space between eyes with deep sulcus in middle, vertex at extreme base striolate, eyes rather small, slightly elliptical and strongly convex. Pronotum much narrower than elytra, transverse, with sparse deep punctures almost concealed by vestiture, anterior and posterior margins truncate, sides moderately rounded, disc slightly convex with barely noticeable anterior depression. Scutellum invisible. Elytra shortly elliptical, convex, 10-striate, apical declivity continuing outline of elytra. Legs robust, femora moderately clubbed, edentate, tibiae slightly curved inwards at apical third, internal margin somewhat mucronate apically. Anterior coxae contiguous, intermediate ones separate by triangular process shorter that diameter of coxa, posterior ones widely separate by space slightly less than twice length of metaventrite.

Differential diagnosis. Ericiates gen. nov. is set apart at once from all other African peritelines by the combination of small size, bisetose mentum, rostrum somewhat bulging at base and here to a higher level than that of interocular space, short subglobose 10-striate elytra with straight erect hair-like scales on intervals which start already from their base, dense vestiture of roundish recumbent scales, tibiae with short mucro. The appearance of the new genus is also much that of some Cyphicerini , a tribe including several species occurring in both continental Africa and Arabian Peninsula but hitherto not known from Socotra; Ericiates gen. nov. is immediately distinguished from all of them by its fused claws. This and the new periteline genera described below appear endemic to Socotra, and are probably remnants of a quite early settling of this island by their ancestors.

Etymology. The name is a combination of the Latin ‘ ericius’, meaning hedgehog, and Systates , a genus of African peritelines, and refers to the setose elytra of the new genus. Gender is masculine.