Hellerius ignambius (Heller), 2008

Kuschel, Guillermo, 2008, Curculionoidea (weevils) of New Caledonia and Vanuatu: Basal families and some Curculionidae, Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 197, pp. 99-250 : 134-135

Hellerius ignambius (Heller) n. comb.

Figs 21, 22

Anomalodermus ignambius Heller, 1916: 314 .

DESCRIPTION. — Integument black or piceous, legs usually slightly reddish; vestiture squamose, pale or dark grey, rarely with bluish tint; setae inconspicuous, appressed.

Rostrum bisulcate, sulci flanking a slightly raised median area. Scape slightly passing hind margin of eyes, claviform at apex; segment 1 of funicle as long as 2 o nearly so, segments 3-7 moniliform, not longer than wide. Elytra elongate-oval; striae 3 to 7 confused, irregular on basal half, 4 and 5 ending there well short of tubercle of interstria 3, space outside of this tubercle, between striae 3 and 6, having a small, low, densely squamose tubercle surrounded by puncta, positioned, in lateral view, just below tubercle of interstria 3; elytra in female with 0-2 subbasal tubercles on interstriae 5 and 7, a large, somewhat curved backwards tubercle on interstria 3, interstria 7 somewhat raised before declivity, and a rather prominent, elongate tubercle at junction of striae 3 and 9. Last three ventrites in female rather consricted in relation to first two, ventrite 5 weakly tapering, distinctly longer than 3 and 4 combined. Male: tergite 7 broadly truncate-subemarginate. Tegmen with long parameres. Pedon about 1.5 x longer than apodemes, weakly tapering from base to apex, before apex two-thirds as wide as at base; apex sharply pointed, not turned up; basal sclerite as long as aedeagal body plus apodemes, stiff, evenly thick,nearly as thick as apodeme of tegmen.

Female: tergite 7 rounded at apex, 8 strongly pigmented at base; spermatheca with a long duct extension, measured from gland to duct extensions as long as spermathecal hook; duct unusually thick, as thick as spermathecal stem wide, 4 x as long as spermatheca; gland long, cylindrical, inserted on a rather long extension.

Length: 7.5-11.0 mm.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype female, 10.0 x 4.5 mm, ‘Ignambi, 8.VIII.1911, F Sarasin & J Roux, Typus’, SMT. D. Identified non-type specimens with ANIC, BPBM, MNHW, NZAC, QMBA, SRFP.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. Ignambi , Mandjélia (summit, 780 m). 37 specimens .

HOSTPLANTS. — Araliacaeae for all nine specimens found in Mandjélia by S. Cazères.

ETYMOLOGY. — The name ‘ignámbius’ is in reference to Ignambi, a mountain 20 km in straight line S of Pouébo, NW New Caledonia.

REMARKS. — The holotype female has no tubercles near the base of the elytra. The species is at present known only from the far NW of New Caledonia .