Echinodera soumasi, Christoph Germann, Ingo Wolf & André Schütte, 2015

Christoph Germann, Ingo Wolf & André Schütte, 2015, Echinodera (Ruteria) soumasi sp. n. from Greece (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), Mitteilungen Der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 88, pp. 285-293 : 287-292

Echinodera soumasi sp. n.

( Figs 1–6)

Type material. Holotype ♂: « 242 _ 14.11 [collection number] GREECE, Peloponnes, NE Pilos, S Kazama , Polilimnos , Bachtal [creek valley] , 26.9. 2014, N 36 ° 59 ’00” E 21 ° 51 ’ 16 ”, 300 m a.s.l., leg. C. Germann ». Red label: «Holotype Echinodera (Ruteria) soumasi sp. n. Germann, Wolf & Schütte des. 2015 » ( NMBE). DNAtype: same as Holotype, collector´s no: 2798 -PST (corresponding collection number of ZFMK); DNA voucher: ZFMK-DNA-0169166944, GenBank accession number for COI: KT 289402

Paratypes: 22 specimens: 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀♀ « Griechenland, Region Epirus, 5 km südl. Mesopotamo , I. Wolf leg. 27.4.1995 » . 1 ♂ « Graecia – Peloponnes, Region Lakonien, Bez. Parta, südl. Mistras, bei Anavriti, 850 m, 23.9. 2012, leg. I. Wolf » [sifting Quercus coccifera , Castanea ]. 1 ♂, 1 ♀ « Graecia – Epirus, Bez. Preveza, ca. 5 km südl. Mesopotamo Str. -> Preveza , V. Brachat [leg.] 17.5.1994 » . 1 ♂ « Graecia – Epirus südlich Igoumenitsa, 5 km östl. Parga 100 m, Osthang am Campingplatz Enjoy-Lichnos , 11.9. 2002, leg. I. Wolf » [sifting Quercus and Arbutus ]. 1 ♂ « Graecia – Epirus Parga I. Wolf leg. 27.5.1997 » . 4 ♂♂, 1 ♀ « Graecia – Peloponnes Region Arkadia, Taygetos Gebirge, 12 km südl. Sparta, Anavriti 750 m, I. Wolf leg. 29.4.1999 » [sifting Quercus cerris , Q. ilex and bushes] . 2 ♂♂ « Griechenland, Peloponnes, 5 km n. Kalavrita Flussau , I. Wolf leg. 22.4.1995 » [creek valley, sifting Platanus ] . 4 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀ « Graecia – Peloponnes Region Ilia, Bez. Pirgos bei Kastro , 5-20 m, 17.9.- 20.9.2002, leg. I. Wolf » [sifting Quercus ilex and Olea europaea ] . All additionally labelled with red labels: « Paratype Echinodera (Ruteria) soumasi sp. n. Germann, Wolf & Schütte des. 2015 » ( NMBE, WOLF) .

Description. Size (without rostrum): 3.4 – 5.0 mm. Body colour dark brown to blackish.

Head: eyes flattened, large and oval, upper margin above rostral groove, visible from above. Rostrum deeply punctate-striate; covered with small oval scales and hairs towards rostral apex. Antennae reddish brown, antennal scape: 4.5 x longer than wide, segments of antennal funiculus: 1 st thicker than the following, 1 st and 2 nd: 2 x longer than wide, 3 rd to 7 th: as long as wide, club oval, 3 x thicker than the last segments of funiculus.

Pronotum: transverse (length/width: around 0.7); maximal width before base in the first third, slightly rounded towards base; strongly narrowed to front margin ( Fig. 5)

Integument and vestiture: colour patterns varying with darker and lighter brown scales; spottily placed white scales along the middle of pronotum, on both sides of the disc, and symmetrically just behind the eyes. Surface deeply and coarsely punctate. The integument consists of dense, adjacent, overlapping, almost circular scales. Long (3 to 4 x longer than wide), scale-like, clubbed and vertically raised bristles arise from punctures.

Elytra: globular (length/width: 0.97–1.1); widest in first fourth; without shoulders; base straight, elytral decline in lateral view rounded, vertical towards apex.

Integument and vestiture: colour patterns varying with darker and lighter brown scales; spottily placed white scales left and right of the base, and forming a band just above elytral decline between first and third interval. Consisting of roundish, almost circular, overlapping scales almost completely covering the intervals. Striae narrow, about half the span of intervals; punctures with adjacent oval scalelike bristles. On intervals very long (4 to 5 x longer than wide), scale-like, clubbed, vertically raised bristles.

Legs: brown, strong, densely covered with elongated dark and light brown scales, white scales loosely intermixed.

Penis: tip of medianlobus S-shaped waved, first turn strong, with fine, short sensillae just before second turn ( Figs 3 & 4). Apex conspicuously bottleneck shaped ( Fig. 6) in ventral/dorsal view.

Etymology: The new species Echinodera (Ruteria) soumasi is dedicated to Nicole and Janis Soumas (Mesohori). They produce organic olive oil fully respecting, enjoying and protecting the marvellous landscape of Messinia, which harbours a unique and not yet fully explored biodiversity.

Differential diagnosis: Echinodera (Ruteria) soumasi sp. n. belongs to the E. major -species group within the subgenus Ruteria . This group is particular within Ruteria based on the S-shaped, long and slender apex of the penis similar to Echinodera s. str. Echinodera (Ruteria) soumasi sp. n. is most similar to E. major (A. & F. Solari, 1907) from Dalmatia based on its external morphology and shares with E. major the raised bristles on elytra as well as its very short, globular shape. It differs however by the following characters: i) conspicuously bottleneck-shaped apex of the penis ( Figs 6 & 8), similar in turn to E. (Ruteria) minosi Bahr & Bayer 2005 from Crete, ii) the much longer, narrow and raised scales on the pronotum (in E. major these are broadly clubbed and bowed); iii) the surface of the pronotum is densely covered with adjacent circular scales (in E. major the surface is almost bare) ( Figs 5 & 7); iv) narrower raised scales on elytra 4 to 5 x longer than wide (in E. major these are shorter, 3 to 4 x longer than wide).

Bionomy: The new species was sifted from leaf litter in humid places under Arbutus , Castanea , Olea , Platanus and different Quercus species.

The discovery of Echinodera (Ruteria) soumasi sp. n. on Epirus and the Peloponnese fits well in the line of sister taxa, drawn from Dalmatia with E. (Ruteria) major to Crete with E. (Ruteria) minosi ( Fig. 11). The investigated molecular CO 1 - sequence data with totally 657 positions in the final dataset fully confirm the major species group ( Fig. 10). The p-distances between the members of the major species group are shown in Tab. 1 and Fig. 11.

Tab. 1. P-distance values of the investigated CO 1 sequence-data between the three species of the E. major -species group.