Corresponding author: Miguel A. Alonso-Zarazaga (
Academic editor: Lyubomir Penev
A new species,
The weevil genus
Measurements were taken using an ocular micrometer attached to a Leica MZ75 stereo microscope and are defined as follows: body length: from anterior margin of eye to posterior margin of elytra; rostrum length: from apex of rostrum to anterior margin of eye in side view; prothorax length: from anterior margin to the posterior margin of scutellar lobe along midline. For the morphological study, dry adults were placed in lukewarm clean water overnight and their genitalia were dissected. Parts with muscles and other tissues were stored in 10% KOH overnight, cleaned with distilled water and 70% ethanol. Genitalia were observed and photographed in glycerine under a stereo microscope, and kept in glycerine microvials or allowed to dry and glued onto cards under the pinned specimens from which they were dissected. Photographs were taken with a Leica DFC 420 digital camera attached to the stereo microscope using LeicaLAS software for montage. The digital images were then imported into Adobe Photoshop 8.0 and CorelDRAW X4 for labelling and plate composition.
The material examined is deposited in the following collections:
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain.
The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden.
Terminalia and genitalia of
Size variation is presented above under the Measurements section. A detailed variation cannot be presented because there are only two specimens available, and no further specimens have been traced in the rich Moroccan collections of the MNHN (Paris) and MNCN (Madrid). The female specimen shows a partly worn out vestiture, especially on elytra.
Holotype (male) (
The new species is named after our good friend Bert Viklund (The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm).
The known species of the subgenus
1 | Body broadly ovate. Protibia strongly widened outwards, outer margin strongly sinuate. Claws strongly unequal in length | 2 |
– | Body elongate-ovate. Protibia moderately widened outwards at apex, outer margin nearly straight. Claws moderately unequal in length | 4 |
2 | Length more than 15 mm. Apex of protibia hammer-shaped | |
– | Length less than 8 mm. Apex of protibia not hammer-shaped | 3 |
3 | Protibia with uncus and praemucro well separated | |
– | Protibia with uncus and praemucro tangent | |
4 | Subgena and apex of submentum flat. Apodeme of female sternite VIII bifid at apex | |
– | Subgena depressed, apex of submentum strongly raised. Apodeme of female sternite VIII simple | 5 |
5 | Rostrum in dorsal view subparallel-sided, thick, 1.25× as wide as maximum width of profemora, with a thin median keel | |
– | Rostrum in dorsal view compressed at middle, ca. as wide as maximum width of profemora, with a thick median keel and two deep sulci |
We thank our colleagues Bert Viklund and Kjell Arne Johanson (The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm) for their help during the first author’s visit. The study was supported by grants from the European Commission’s (FP 6) Integrated Infrastructure Initiative programme SYNTHESYS (ES-TAF, SE-TAF). The English language has been revised by a professional editor.