Melanterius ventralis Lea, 1899

Pinzón-Navarro, Sara V., Jennings, Debbie & Oberprieler, Rolf G., 2017, Host associations of Melanterius Erichson (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cleogonini), with a diagnosis and delimitation of the genus and description of five new species, Zootaxa 4298 (1), pp. 1-77 : 27

Melanterius ventralis Lea, 1899

( Figs. 9–10 , 46–47 )

Melanterius ventralis Lea, 1899: 214

This species was described from Sydney and occurs mainly in coastal regions of New South Wales and southern Queensland. The male is distinctive in its medially densely setose apical three ventrites ( Fig. 9 ), its ventrally strongly flattened antennal clubs ( Fig. 10 ) and its apically broadly truncate penis with a small pair of square apical sclerites and a larger complex basal one ( Fig. 47 ).

The principal host of M. ventralis is Acacia longifolia (including the subspecies sophorae), from whose seeds it was first reared in 1976 by M. van den Berg (van den Berg, 1982). It is the first Melanterius species to be released in South Africa ( Dennill & Donnelly , 1991), in 1985 against A. longifolia ( Donnelly, 1992) , and it is well established there and successfully controlling its host, in combination with the galling pteromalid wasp Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae (Froggatt) ( Dennill et al., 1999; Impson et al., 2011). Specimens in the ANIC have also been reared from seeds of A. longissima and A. oxycedrus and collected on A. ulicifolia , A. floribunda and A. mabellae ( Table 1), but the last two records are unlikely to represent true host associations ( Table 2). We collected several specimens from A. obtusifolia , A. spectabilis and A. ulicifolia , which appear to be additional hosts for the species ( Tables 1, 2).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 13. Diagnostic structures of some Melanterius species. 1 – 8: apex of left protibia, odd numbers – males, even numbers – females (arrows showing point of origin of uncus); 1 – 2: M. acaciae Lea; 3 – 4: M. castaneus Lea; 5 – 6: M. maculatus Lea; 7 – 8: M. servulus Pascoe. 9: ventrites of M. ventralis Lea, male (arrows showing lobed posterior margin of ventrite 1 and setose median area of ventrites 3 – 5). 10: antennal funicle and club of M. ventralis (arrow showing flattended ventral surface of club). 11 – 13: elytral declivities (arrows showing arrangement of costate interstriae); 11: M. castaneus; 12: M. maculatus; 13: M. servulus.

FIGURES 44 – 47. Dorsal view of habitus and aedeagi of Melanterius semiporcatus Erichson and M. ventralis Lea. 44 – 45: M. semiporcatus; 44: male (Queensland); 45: aedeagus (Queensland, Texas). 46 – 47: M. ventralis; 46: male (South Africa, Belvedere); 47: adeagus (South Africa, Belvedere).