Notorhopalotria panamensis O’Brien, 2015

O’Brien, Charles W. & Tang, William, 2015, Revision of the New World cycad weevils of the subtribe Allocorynina, with description of two new genera and three new subgenera (Coleoptera: Belidae: Oxycoryninae), Zootaxa 3970 (1), pp. 1-87 : 20-21

Notorhopalotria panamensis O’Brien and Tang, new species

Figures: habitus: 17–20, 270, 272; antennal pockets: 105; male genitalia: 133–134, 177, 217; female genitalia: 244.

DESCRIPTION—Body minute to small (range 1.6–2.4 mm, mean = 2.1 mm, n = 35), robust, broad-oval; rostrum, head, prothorax and legs with fine reticulate submatte surface; unicolored brown.

Male (holotype). Rostrum: short, 0.58 X as long as pronotum, brown; not evidently punctate; minutely, granularly denticulate dorsally and laterally from base nearly to apex; moderately strongly expanded near apex, straight but appearing ventrally curved in lateral view from apical expansion. Head: just behind eyes coarsely shallowly punctate, forehead between eyes with similar punctures and impunctate in medial 2/3 with fine, shallow, moderately long, narrow, median fovea; forehead very moderately narrowed apically, 0.67 X as wide between median basal margin and apical margin of eyes. Antennae: scape 0.79 X as long as eye and slightly shorter than desmomeres 1–3 together, 1 short and broad, 2 narrow and elongate, 3–7 becoming gradually more transverse; scape, desmomeres and club brown. Prothorax: very strongly transverse, 1.42 X wider than long; apex moderately weakly narrowed, evenly moderately strongly roundly expanded from apical 1/4 to basal 1/10, there weakly rounded to base; lateral margins not denticulate, lacking evident punctures; disc with fine shallow indistinct punctures; surface with fine dense reticulation not shining, submatte, uniformly brown. Scutellum: lateral margins convexly curved; apically broadly U-shaped, overall with well-separated sparse fine punctures, with scarcely evident coarse setae on basal half. Elytra: 0.81 X as wide as long; evenly expanded behind rounded humeri to declivity, there suddenly evenly broadly rounded to distinctly emarginate apices; with moderately fine, dense, elongate, punctures, many connected forming long fine rugae on entire surface, overall not smooth; uniformly shining brown. Legs: moderately robust, procoxae weakly convex, with single large blunt anterior process; profemora asymmetrically swollen, with small apical pit-like impression receiving base of tibia, apical margins with two rows of small subgranular teeth or processes well away from apical pit, which converge near center of ventral surface (Fig. 270), surface smooth, submatte, not strongly shining; protibiae stout in lateral view, with base nearly straight with obtuse bend, lacking inner tooth, inner surface very weakly medially narrowly excavate from middle to near apex, margins of groove distinctly denticulate, apex with small anterior mucro, and subequal tooth. Length, pronotum and elytron: 2.10 mm.

Female. Same as male except: Entire surface shining. Rostrum: 1.18 X longer than pronotum; moderately strongly, unevenly curved. Prothorax: 1.56 X wider than long; apex narrow, strongly angulately expanding in weakly rounded line to slightly narrowing broad base. Length, pronotum and elytron: 2.20 mm.

Genitalia and Associated Structures— Male. Length of penis and apodemes together 0.77–0.85 mm (n = 5). Penis: in dorsal view lateral margins subparallel, usually widest at center, from there tapering moderately toward apex, with slight bulge at orifice; apex with sides emarginate from orifice to rounded tip, angle between sides ~ 30– 43˚ (Figs. 133, 177). Female. Sternite VIII: 0.57–0.62 mm long (n = 3), arms diverging from apodeme with maximum angle between arms of 55–67˚ for half of length, then arms bending inward and becoming subparallel to slightly convergent near apices (Fig. 244). Spermathecal tube: uncoiled length> length of sternite VIII.

Intraspecific Variation— The rostral length relative to the pronotal length of males = 0.57–0.62 (mean = 0.59, n = 10) and of females = 1.02–1.26 (mean = 1.16, n = 10); the pronotal width relative to the pronotal length of males = 1.33–1.43 (mean = 1.38, n = 10) and of females = 1.45–1.57 (mean = 1.50, n = 10). In major males the two rows of pegs at the ventrodistal surface of the profemora (Fig. 270) may rest on raised ridges; these ridges converge to form a “V” and are continuous with the ventroproximal ridge of the profemora.

Etymological Note— The species name refers to the geographic distribution of the species.

Remarks— As a member of the eastern Panama group this species may be distinguished from Notorhopalotria from western Panama and Costa Rica by its pronotum, which is relatively flat (versus arched) and by the lesser amount of punctation (average distance between punctures = 3 X own width versus 2 X own width). This species may have a more extensive host range than recognized in this paper. Individuals closely matching the morphology of this species have been found in Zamia obliqua in Darién province of Panama; however, their affinity awaits more detailed morphological and molecular analysis.

Biology— This species is known to live and reproduce on the male cones of three species of Zamia : 1) Z. elegantissima , which lives in the Atlantic wet forests in the provinces of Colón and Panamá, and in the comarca indígena of Kuna Yala; 2) Z. stevensonii , a smaller species closely related to Z. elegantissima and formerly called “blanco” for its white emergent leaves and which occurs in the province of Panamá in the canal zone ( Taylor & Holzman 2012); 3) Z. dressleri , a plicate-leaf species in the province of Colón not closely related to the other two hosts. The Notorhopalotria on these three host species exhibit some size differences, perhaps due to differences in the size of the host cones, but are otherwise morphologically similar. Molecular analysis of the 16S rRNA gene ( Tang et al. in prep.) indicates that Notorhopalotria from Z. elegantissima and Z. stevensonii populations are identical in their sequences for this gene. Those from Z. dressleri show a slight difference, suggesting incipient speciation. Based on currently available evidence Notorhopalotria from all three hosts are treated here as one species.

Range— Panama, known from the provinces of Panamá and Colón; hosts range into the comarca indígena of Kuna Yala.

Material Examined.— Holotype (by designation) male with the following labels: 1) [rectangular; white; printed in black ink] PANAMA, Panama Prov. / Chagres Nat. Park, ex: ♂ / Cone Zamia sp. “blanco”/ A. Taylor, XII-2000; 2) [rectangular; red; printed in black ink] HOLOTYPE ♂ / Notorhopalotria / panamensis/ O’Brien & Tang 2015 (CAS). Paratypes: same label data (30). PANAMA: Colón Prov.: Portabello, Buenaventura, ex. Zamia elegantissima ♂ cone, A. Taylor, XII-25-2010 (12), Santa Rita Arriba, ex: ♂ cone Zamia dressleri, A. Taylor , XII-2003 (21); Santa Rita, Akers gard. by forest, ex ♂ cone Zamia dressleri , 19 Aug 2012, A. Taylor (16); Zamia stevensonii ♂ cone bait, 3-IX-2012, A.Taylor (10); Zamia obliqua ♂ cone bait, 16-IX-2012, A.Taylor (8); Panamá Prov.: Cerro Azul, ex: ♂ cone Zamia sp. “blanco” ( Zamia stevensonii ), A. Taylor, XII-10-2001 (3); Chagres Nat. Park, A. Taylor, XII-19-2001 (9); XII-2003 (9); Llano Carti, ex: ♂ bait cone Zamia elegantissima from nursery of G. Silvero, A.Taylor, X-15–16-2003 (1); Llano Carti, ex: ♂ cone Zamia elegantissima, A. Taylor , XI-8-2004 (2); ex. Zamia elegantissima ♂ cone, cult. in nursery G. Silvero, A. Taylor, XII-18-2007 (71). Paratypes (192) are deposited in ANIC, ASUT, BMNH, CAS, CMNC, CSCA, CWOB, EMEC, FMNH, FSCA, IEXA, INBio, IZCAS, MIUP, NMHN, STRI, UNAM, USNM, ZMHB