Stethobaroides badicrus Prena, 2025

Prena, Jens, 2025, Neotropical orchid-weevils of the genus Stethobaroides Champion (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Baridinae), Zootaxa 5723 (2), pp. 227-244 : 236-237

Stethobaroides badicrus Prena , new species

( Figs. 4C , 6B , 10 )

http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

Diagnosis. Stethobaroides badicrus is a small, comparatively slender species. Characteristic are the setose flanks of the prothorax and the usually dark reddish derma of antenna, prorostrum and legs. Small teneral S. permixtus are similar and may require genitalia dissection.

Description. Total length 2.3–2.7 mm, habitus as Fig. 10 ; integument mostly black, antenna, legs and prorostrum variously ruddy, pronotum and interstriae faintly punctate and glabrous, thoracic ventrites and appendages with appressed setae, setae more erect and condensed along prosternal channel and on distal ventrite of male; penis curved evenly in lateral view, shape ovate-lanceolate in dorsal view, apex pointed ( Fig. 4C ); ventrite 5 of female transversely rugose medially and with apical margin distinctly bisinuate ( Fig. 6B ).

Etymology. The specific epithet is a composite noun in apposition derived from Latin badius (reddish-brown) and crus (leg).

Life history. This species has been found repeatedly on flowering Gongora Ruiz & Pav. species in the Costa Rican La Selva reserve, the first time by Henry Hespenheide in the early 1990s. Most observations apply to a taxonomically unresolved complex in the autonymous section Gongora , recorded as Gongora quinquenervis on the labels following Standley (1937). Kenji Nishida found S. badicrus and S. permixtus co-occurring on the same plant in 2004 ( Fig. 1 ), with S. badicrus being more abundant. Stethobaroides badicrus also occurred at two occasions together with an undescribed species of Stethobaris .

Distribution. This species is known only from the OTS field station La Selva in the Atlantic lowland of Costa Rica.

Material examined. Holotype male, Costa Rica, labelled “ COSTA Rica: Heredia / Pr : La Selva Biol. Sta. / 3 km S Pto. Viejo / 10° 26’N 84° 01’W ”, “ 28.vii.1992 / H. A. Hespenheide ”, “ Gongora unicolor ” ( MNCR) . Paratypes 43 ( 35 males, 8 females), same data as holotype, 1 female ( MNCR) ; same locality, 26.v.1991, H.A. Hespenheide, Gongora 5-nervis, 1 male ( JPPC) ; same locality, 7.vii.1993, H.A. Hespenheide, 1 male, 1 female ( JPPC) ; same locality, 27.i.2004, K. Nishida, Gongora sp. , 30 males, 5 females ( JPPC 27 , MfNB 2 , NHMUK 2, SMNK 2 , SNSD 2 ) ; same locality, III/ IV.2019, M.G. Amador, Gongora sp. , 3 males, 1 female ( CMNC) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Flowering orchid of the Gongora section Gongora visited by ants, two species of Stethobaroides and one species of Stethobaris at the OTS La Selva Reserve in Costa Rica. Photo by Kenji Nishida, 27.i.2004.

FIGURE 4. Stethobaroides, male genitalia, dorsal and lateral aspects. A, S. elcoranus; B, S. villus; C, S. badicrus; D, S. nudiventris (from Toxpam); E, S. permixtus (from La Selva); F, S. lauro. Scale bar 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 6. Stethobaroides, female distal ventrites. A, S. elcoranus; B, S. badicrus; C, S. nudiventris; D, S. scutellatus; E, S. permixtus; F, S. lauro.

FIGURE 10. Stethobaroides badicrus from La Selva Reserve, Heredia, Costa Rica. A–C, male, L=2.6 mm; D, female, L=2.8 mm.