Chiloneus brevithorax Desbrochers

Borovec, Roman & Perrin, Hélène, 2016, On the systematic position of some species of Chiloneus, Desbrochersella and Sciaphilus, with description of two new species and lectotype selection (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), Zootaxa 4109 (2), pp. 131-152 : 135

Chiloneus brevithorax Desbrochers des Loges, 1874

Chiloneus brevithorax Desbrochers des Loges, 1874: ccxxvi.

Chiloneus brevithorax: Winkler, 1932: 1469 ; Dalla Torre et al., 1937: 167; Borovec, 2013b: 379. Microelytrodon theresae Pic, 1945: 2 , syn. nov. Type locality: Chypre [ Cyprus ]. Chiloneus theresae: Borovec, 2013b: 380 .

Type locality. Chypre [ Cyprus ] (Desbrochers des Loges, 1874).

Type material examined. Chiloneus brevithorax . Holotype: 1 spec. ( MNHN, Sédillot coll., ex Piochard de la Brûlerie), ‘ Chypre [hw, green] // 38 [p, green] // Chiloneus / brevithorax / m. [hw] // ex Piochard / de la Brûlerie [p] // Museum Paris / 1935 / Coll. M. Sédillot [p] // Type [p, red] // HOLOTYPUS / Chiloneus / brevithorax Desbr., 1874 / Borovec & Perrin vid. 2015 [p, red]’.

Microelytrodon theresae . Types examined by Borovec (2006) with lectotype designation.

Additional material examined. 18 spec., Cyprus , Lemesos, Pissouri, 21.ii.2012, J. Messutat lgt. ( JMPG); 6 spec., Cyprus , Paphos, Coral-Bay, 24.ii.2008, J. Messutat lgt. ( JMPG); 23 spec., Cyprus , Paphos, Agios Georgios, 25.ii.2008, J. Messutat lgt. ( JMPG); 1 spec., Cyprus , Pafos, Arodes, 24.ii.2011, W. Ziegler lgt. ( HWBG); 5 spec., Cyprus , Pafos, Pano Arodes—W Kathikas, 34°55.528′ N, 32°22.469′ E, ca 300 m, 24.ii.2011, Starke lgt. ( RBSC).

Remarks. The holotype of C. brevithorax is 4.50 mm long and clearly belongs to the larger and more common of the two Chiloneus species known from Cyprus . The lectotype of C. theresae was reexamined and compared with both known species from Cyprus and it is clearly conspecific with C. brevithorax , and thus a subjective junior synonym. The slender brownish body with sparsely punctured pronotum make this species similar to C. hoffmanni ( González, 1970) , C. infuscatus ( Chevrolat, 1861) , C. jonicus Kraatz, 1859 , C. meridionalis (Boheman, 1840) , C. ottomanus Desbrochers des Loges, 1892 and C. solarii Pesarini, 1970 . From all these species C. brevithorax is distinguishable by the following set of characters: all femora edentate, rostrum short and wide, elytra moderately densely covered by two types of appressed scales—whitish rounded and slender smaller brownish ones and two types of semierect, moderately long elytral setae—slender subspatulate whitish and piliform brownish, distinctly shorter in basal half of elytra in comparison to posterior declivity.