Embates heilipoides (Chevrolat)

Prena, Jens, 2005, The Middle American species of Embates Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Baridinae), Zootaxa 1100 (1), pp. 1-151 : 1-151

42. Embates heilipoides (Chevrolat)

(Fig. 152–154, 241)

Ambates heilipoides Chevrolat 1877: 343 . Holotype male, Mexico, labeled: “1107”, “Teapa”, “322”, “ Paratypus ” [lapsus?]; “ heilipoides Chevr ” (NHRS). Hustache 1938 (cat., Cholinambates to subgenus); Blackwelder 1947 (cat.); O’Brien & Wibmer 1982 (cat.)

Cholinambates heilipoides . Casey 1922:6

Embates [ heilipoides ]. Alonso­Zarazaga & Lyal 1999 (global combination of all species of Ambates Schönherr 1836 with Embates Chevrolat 1833 )

Redescription. Habitus: Fig. 152, total length 6.3–8.8 mm (m=7.9, n=5). Color: integument dark brown; basic vestiture of minute scales; scales yellow to creamy white in broad dorsolateral pronotal and compound elytral vittae (Fig. 152a, b); venter with small yellow scales on prosternum and along flank. Head: frontal fovea deep, rostrum moderate, subcylindrical (Fig. 153, 154), sides attenuated between apex and antennal insertion, subcostate dorsomedially (♂♂) or not (♀♀), basolateral margin slightly edged, length of rostrum ♂♂ 1.22–1.39 x (n=2), ♀♀ 1.39–1.46 x (m=1.44, n=3) pronotal length, length of ante­antennal portion ♂♂ 0.35 x (n=2), ♀♀ 0.39–0.43 x (m=0.41, n=3) total rostral length, dorsal margin of antennal scrobe reaching rostral base before eye; funicular segment 2 much longer than 1, club oblong ovate. Pronotum: length 0.80–0.88 x (m=0.85, n=5) maximum width, sides subparallel in basal third, then roundly narrowed, anterior portion tubulate; disk finely punctate, intervals smooth. Elytra: length 1.72–1.92 x (m=1.81, n=5) width at humeri, width 1.21–1.35 x (m=1.29, n=5) maximum pronotal width, sides subparallel in basal half, apices rounded conjointly, preapical callus weakly developed, striae fine, punctures distinct, interstriae flat, 9 conve x distally. Legs: slender, tibia slightly curved, ventral margin with distal cluster of cupreous hairs, tarsal claws flat and approximate at base. Male: aedeagus as E. obliquus .

Plant association. Not known.

Distribution. Southern Mexico, Atlantic side, east of Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Fig. 241).

Material examined. MEXICO. Without site: ( MNHP) . Tabasco: Teapa ( BMNH 4 , NHRS, NMNH) . Chiapas: Solusuchiapa ( CWOB 2 ) ; El Bosque ( CNCI) ; Tuxtla Gutiérrez ( BMNH, interpreted as San Andrés Tuxtla by Champion); Ocozocoautla, Parque Laguna Bélgica ( CWOB) . GUATEMALA. Alta Verapaz: Telemán ( BMNH) . Total 11 specimens .

Discussion. Embates heilipoides is related very closely to E. obliquus . The records available indicate that E. heilipoides occurs in mountainous habitats east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and that E. obliquus occurs in mountainous habitats to the west and in the Atlantic lowlands north of the isthmus (Fig. 241). Two specimens, from Telemán and Ocozocoautla, have the ante­macular element of the elytral color­pattern reduced and discontinued from the post­macular element, but fit otherwise in the distribution of E. heilipoides .