Chryasus montyi Prena, 2024

Prena, Jens, 2024, Consolidation of Aniops Casey, Psiona Casey, Preglyptobaris Bondar and Prospoliata Hustache with Chryasus Champion (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Baridinae) and descriptions of new species, Zootaxa 5492 (1), pp. 1-24 : 15-16

13. Chryasus montyi Prena , new species

( Figs. 13 , 19 , 41 )

http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A26346FF-7190-48A3-BE77-3F04E3086D04

Diagnosis. Chryasus montyi is an elongate, brown species very near to but darker than C. carinulosus from Brazil. Chryasus persimilis , the only other morphologically similar species recorded from Costa Rica, is smaller, reddish and with a shorter rostrum.

Description. Total length 2.9–3.3 mm, width 1.2–1.4 mm (n=21); integument nearly black, appendages, elytron and often pronotum brighter with purplish hue; body oblong ovate with protruding humeri and curved sides; rostrum sexually dimorphic, thinner and longer in female; pronotum with fine, confluent punctation, interspaces forming narrow ridges, surface texture coarser and shallower on flank and evanescent above coxa; elytron with transverse depression at base, interstriae ridged, metaventrite unmodified and not sexually dimorphic, male ventrites 1, 2 and 5 depressed medially and with erect squamulae; femora with denticles gradually decreasing in size, denticles occasionally scattered or in seemingly additional row; male genitalia as Fig. 19 , endophallus with long, basally inflexible flagellum.

Material examined. Holotype male, labeled “ COSTA RICA, Puntarenas: Monteverde , Est. Biológica, 10.3147 N, 84.7969 W, 1500–1800 m, 30.vi.–9.vii.2009, J. Prena ( MNCR) . Paratypes (11 males, 9 females): same data as holotype, 1 male, 1 female ( CMNC), 4 males, 1 female ( JPPC), 1 male, 2 females ( MNCR), 1 male, 1 female ( NHMUK), 2.–7.vi.2011 , 3 males, 3 females ( JPPC), 1 male, 1 female ( MNCR) .

Life history. All specimens were collected at two occasions from the same two flowering Miconia shrubs in a dense secondary forest. They occurred together with C. clunis and in 2009 with a single female of a still unnamed species.

Etymology. The species is named for the late Montgomery “Monty” Wood, valued friend and founder of Monteverde Biological Station. This hospitable research and education facility is not to be confused with the commercial tourist reserve of the former Quaker community, which did not cooperate with official inventory programs.

Figures

FIGURES 13–15. Changes in extension and relative position of morphological parts on the prosternum associated with increased gibbosity of the pronotum and simultaneously shortened prosternum (ID = intercoxal distance; LR = length of lateral ridge of prosternal channel). 13, Chryasus montyi, with ID <LR; 14, Chryasus sp. near C. bruniceps, Costa Rica (see Fig. 33), with ID = LR; 15, Chryasus wappesi, with ID> LR.

FIGURES 16–25. Chryasus, male genitalia, dorsal aspects. 16, C. wappesi; 17, C. macer; 18, C. taironius; 19, C. montyi; 20, C. cavernosus; 21, C. clunis (Cerro Cacao, Costa Rica); 22, Chryasus sp. nr. C. clunis (Machaquilá, Guatemala); 23, Chryasus sp. nr. C. clunis (Cerro Azul, Panamá); 24, C. persimilis; 25, Chryasus sp. nr. C. sculpturatus (São Paulo, Brazil).

FIGURES 34–47. Chryasus talamanca complex, dorsal and lateral aspects. 34, Male holotype, Buquete in Chiriquí, Panamá; 35, Female paratype, Buquete in Chiriquí, Panamá; 36, Teneral female from gall of Miconia pittieri, Monteverde in Puntarenas, Costa Rica; 37, Female, P.N. Tapantí in Cartago, Costa Rica.