Diaprepes squamula, Poinar & Legalov, 2017

Poinar, GO & Legalov, AA, 2017, Five new species from the subfamily Entiminae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Dominican amber, Palaeontologia Electronica 20 (2), pp. 1-13 : 2-3

Diaprepes squamula sp. nov.

Figures 1, 2

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Holotype. Deposited in the American Museum of Natural History (New York, USA) ( AMNH no. DR-10-992).

Description. The specimen is complete. Body length (without rostrum), 9.0 mm; rostrum length, 0.6 mm. Body black, with dense light, rounded, and appressed scales.

Head 1.2x as long as rostrum, not constricted behind eye; rostrum almost straight, short, 0.5x as long as pronotum, 0.9x as narrow as wide at apex, 1.1x as wide as wide in middle and at base, densely punctate; lateral margins of rostrum weak widened to eyes; epistoma indistinct; forehead quite narrow, narrower than rostrum base width, flattened; eyes large, convex, rounded; temples quite short, 0.7x as long as eye; antennal scrobes reaching lower margin of eye; pterygia dorso-lateral; geniculate antennae long, inserted in apical third of rostrum, reaching base of elytra; antennomeres almost conical; 1st antennomere (scape) 7.3x longer than wide, reaching base of eye; 2nd– 4th antennomeres subequal in width; 2nd antennomere 3.7x longer than wide, 0.5x as long as 1st antennomere; 3rd antennomere 4.0x longer than wide, 1.1x as long as 2nd antennomere; 4th antennomere 2.3x longer than wide, 0.6x as long as 3rd antennomere; 5th antennomere 2.4x longer than wide, 0.9x as long and 0.8x as narrow as 4th antennomere; 6th antennomere 2.0x longer than wide, 0.8x as long as and equal in width to 5th antennomere; 7th antennomere 2.0x longer than wide, 1.2x as long as and 1.2x as wide as 6th antennomere; 8th antennomere 2.3x longer than wide, 1.2x as long as and subequal in width to 7th antennomere; club compact, 3.0x longer than wide, 0.3x as long as flagellum, with fused articles.

Pronotum bell-shaped, 1.1x longer than wide at apex, 0.8x longer than wide in middle, 0.9x longer than wide at base; densely punctate, weakly flattened, 0.7x as narrow as elytral base; sides weakly curved; scutellum trapezoidal.

Elytra elongate and convex, 4.5x as long as pronotum, 2.7x longer than wide at base, 2.2x as long as wide in middle, 4.9x longer than wide at apical fourth; humeri weakly convex; punctate striae distinct, with small points; intervals weakly convex, 3.3–4.0x as wide as diameter of points; apical part of elytra not convex laterally.

Prosternum weakly convex, densely rugosepunctate, with vibrissae but without postorbital lobe; precoxal portion of prosternum 0.3x as long as procoxal cavities and 0.5x as long as postcoxal portion; postcoxal portion of prosternum 2.0x as long as precoxal portion and 0.5x as long as procoxal cavities; procoxal cavities connected; metasternum convex, punctate; metepisternum narrow, 10.0x as long as wide in middle.

Abdomen convex, densely punctate; 1st, 2nd, and 5th ventrites elongate; 1st ventrite 1.1x as long as metacoxal cavities length; 2nd ventrite subequal to 1st ventrite; 3rd and 4th ventrites short, subequal in length; 3rd ventrite 0.6x as long as 2nd ventrite; 5th ventrite 2.6x as long as 4th ventrite.

Procoxae located near middle of prosternum, closer to anterior margin; mesocoxae rounded, narrowly separated; femora thickened, punctate, without teeth; profemora 4.3x longer than wide in middle; mesofemora 4.7x longer than wide in middle; metafemora 4.8x longer than wide in middle; tibiae weakly curved, punctate, not serrated on inner margin, with mucro; protibia 11.3x longer than wide in middle, with long mucro; mesotibia 11.7x longer than wide in middle; meso- and metatibiae with small mucro; metatibial corbel enclosed, without scales; metatibiae reaching 5th ventrite; tarsi elongate; 1st and 2nd tarsomeres conical; 3rd tarsomere bilobed; 5th tarsomere elongate; claws free; protarsi: 1st tarsomere 1.4x longer than wide; 2nd tarsomere 1.5x longer than wide, 1.2x as long as and 1.1x as wide as 1st tarsomere; 3rd tarsomere 0.4x longer than wide, 0.5x as long as and 1.8x as wide as 2nd tarsomere; 5th tarsomere 5.0x longer than wide, 2.5x as long as and 0.2x as narrow as 3rd tarsomere; metatarsi: 1st tarsomere 2.0x longer than wide; 2nd tarsomere subequal to 1st tarsomere; 3rd tarsomere 0.5x longer than wide, 0.7x as long as and 2.8x as wide as 2nd tarsomere; 5th tarsomere 3.8x longer than wide, 2.1x as long as and 0.3x as narrow as 3rd tarsomere.

Type locality. Amber mine in the northern portion of the Dominican Republic.

Etymology. The species epithet is taken from the Latin “squamosus” = scaly in reference to the dense scales covering the body.

Diagnosis. The new species is similar to Diaprepes famelicus ( Olivier, 1790) from the West Indies but differs by the tibiae lacking serrations on the inner margin, smaller body size, body with dense scales, a greater convex eye, and wider elytral intervals.

Remarks. This specimen belongs to the tribe Eustylini because the elytra have humeri ( Franz, 2012), the metabibial corbel are enclosed, the claws are free, and the pterygia are dorso-lateral. The front margin of the prosternum with vibrissae is a diagnostic character of the genus Diaprepes .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Drawing of Diaprepes squamula n. sp. in ventral view. Scale bar equals 1.1 mm.