Microperus Wood

Hulcr, Jiri, 2010, New genera of Palaeotropical Xyleborini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) based on congruence between morphological and molecular characters, Zootaxa 2717, pp. 1-33 : 19

Genus Microperus Wood

Microperus Wood, 1980

Microperus Maiti and Saha, 1986

Coptodryas ( Wood, 1986)

Coptodryas ( Wood and Bright, 1992) Microperus ( Hulcr et al., 2007)

(complete taxonomic history in Wood and Bright, 1992)

Type species. Xyleborus theae Eggers ((syn. with C. myristicae Schedl ): Wood, 1989, syn. with M. diversicolor ( Eggers, 1923) : Hulcr & Cognato, this publication)

Diagnosis. Antennal club type two (obliquely truncated, apex of second segment visible on posterior side), or three (first segment straight or convex, apex of second segment dominant on posterior side); scutellum not visible; elytral bases curved, costate, densely setose; elytral disc longer than declivity, punctures on elytral disc in strial lines; elytra light brown, reddish, or dark brown, pronotum often much lighter (yellow or orange); minute species, length 1.1- 2 mm, body size beyond 2 mm rare.

Comments. Coptodryas sensu Wood (1986) included diverse tropical species characterized by the absence of scutellum, and by recurved and costate elytral bases, which is probably associated with the elytral mycangium. However, the genus was morphologically extremely diverse, un-diagnosable, and polyphyletic ( Cognato et al., 2011). Hulcr et al. (2007) resurrected Microperus Wood for a monophyletic clade of small and relatively uniform species. The molecular analysis of Cognato et al. (2010) confirmed relatedness of Microperus spp. and several other morphologically similar species, and the genus is augmented here.

Microperus in Cognato et al. (2010) is paraphyletic with respect to the clade containing Coptodryas elegans , Coptodryas curvidentis , Cryptoxyleborus percuneolus , and Xyleborus seriatus . All four species possess elytral mycangia, but differ in other characters. Their status is not resolved here.

A large number of variants of elytral vestiture and tuberculation of Microperus spp. were described as nearly 50 different species ( Wood and Bright, 1992 under Coptodryas ), however only a handful appear geographically and morphologically diagnosable and deserve species rank.