Ita berbera, Meregalli & Borovec, 2011

Meregalli, Massimo & Borovec, Roman, 2011, Radiation in the halophytic coenoses of the Peri-Tethys: taxonomy and biogeography of the genus Ita (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Journal of Natural History 45 (21 - 22), pp. 1331-1401 : 1344-1347

Ita berbera sp. nov.

(Figure 3)

Type locality

North-western Algeria, El Kerma, 35 ◦ 36 ′ N 0 ◦ 35 ′ W .

Material examined

Holotype ♂: ALGERIA. “Valmy [El Kerma] / Muséum Paris, Coll. Tournier ” ( MNHN, coll. Tournier).

Paratypes: same data as the holotype, five ♀ ( MNHN, coll. Tournier); “Oran, [unreadable]”, two ♀, ( MNHN, coll. Desbrochers); “Valmy, Algeria, Coll. Pic ”, one ♂ ( MSNM, coll. Solari) .

Figure 3. Ita berbera , paratype ♀: (A, B) body; (D, F) rostrum; (I) antenna; (J) scales of side of elytra and (L) scales of dorsum of elytra. Ita berbera , paratype ♂: (C, E) rostrum; (G, H) aedeagus; (K) fore tarsus. Scale bar: (A, B) 1 mm; (C–I) 250 µm; (K) 200 µm.

Diagnosis

A species of Ita characterized by the short rostrum, with moderately but distinctly concave sides, the dense vestiture of white scales three times as long as wide, the broadly sclerotized sides of the median lobe of the aedeagus wider than the central membranous part.

Description of the male. Head, pronotum and elytra black; rostrum dark ferruginous; scape and segments 1–4 of funicle yellow, segments 5–7 and club, coxae, trochanters, femora, tibiae ferruginous, tarsi dark ferruginous. Scales white, subrectangular, three times as long as wide, appressed and completely covering integument on head, pronotum, elytra and underside, scales on legs slightly narrower and more widely spaced (Figures 3J–L). Rostrum robust, weakly curved in lateral view, feebly sinuate at base at junction with head; in dorsal view sharply broadened at antennal insertion, sides concave between base and antennal insertion, nearly linearly divergent between antennal insertion and apex; surface on dorsum and sides densely wrinkled and deeply punctured from base to antennal insertion, sparsely and relatively deeply punctulate on apical part (Figures 3C, E). Scrobes deep, slightly curved downwards, upper margin scarcely keeled, lower margin more clearly delimited. Antennal scape nearly straight, of nearly the same thickness from base to apical quarter, moderately more thickened at apex; funicle segment 1 conical, 2.5 times as long as wide, distinctly broadened at apex, segments 2–7 as long as wide, globose; club elliptical (Figure 3I). Pronotum with sides scarcely curved, maximum width near mid-length. Elytra oval–oblong, moderately convex, sides linearly broadened from base to posterior half, regularly rounded at apex. Tarsi slender, segment 1 more than three times as long as wide, moderately broadened at apex, segment 2 twice as long as wide, segment 3 with distinctly broadened lobes, onychium as long as segments 2 + 3 together (Figure 3K). Aedeagus moderately curved, median lobe with broadly sclerotized margins, central membranous part narrow, sides curved towards lamella, lamella short, folded upwards in lateral view (Figures 3G, H).

Description of the female and variation. Size larger (Figures 3A, B). Rostrum feebly curved, more so and slightly gibbous above antennal insertion, sides weakly concave in basal half and again in apical half (Figures 3D, F); elytra more convex in lateral view, with sharper declivity.

The characters of the few specimens examined are quite constant.

Etymology

This species owes its name to the population of the Berbers, inhabitants of northern Africa.

Natural history

No data were reported in the labels of the type specimens. The type locality is a town near a large, salty, shallow marsh not far from the Mediterranean coast, and the species probably lives upon Chenopod stands around the lake.

Distribution

Ita berbera is apparently localized in pre-coastal marshes in north-western Algeria. All the examined specimens were collected in the last part of the nineteenth century.

Remarks

Ita crassirostris differs in the shorter rostrum, with nearly rectilinear sides, smooth and with very minute and sparse punctures on the apical part; the shorter fore tarsi, with scarcely developed lobes of segment 3; the shorter elytral scales, more distinctly narrowed basally; the lighter segments 4–7 of the antennal funicle; and the aedeagus with narrowly sclerotized margins of the median lobe. Ita gracilis and I. chavanoni sp. nov. have a more slender rostrum, at least in the female in the former. Ita punica sp. nov. has a more basal antennal insertion and the surface of the basal part of the rostrum is less deeply and densely punctured; the sclerotized sides of the aedeagus are narrow, scarcely expanded towards the median part of the median lobe.