Scolytodes plenus Jordal & Kirkendall

Jordal, Bjarte H. & Kirkendall, Lawrence R., 2019, Rainforest and cloud forest Scolytodes (Curculionidae, Scolytinae, Hexacolini) from the Arthropods of La Selva inventory in Costa Rica: new species, new synonymy, new records, ZooKeys 863, pp. 1-34 : 1

Scolytodes plenus Jordal & Kirkendall sp. nov. Figs 48, 51, 54

Type material.

Holotype, female: Costa Rica, Prov. Heredia, 16 km SSE La Virgen, 1050-1150 m, 10°16'N, 84°05'W, 21 Mar. 2001, INBio-OET-ALAS transect, 11/TN/18/008, INB0003210556. Allotype, male: Prov. Heredia, 9 km NE Vara Blanca, 1450-1550 m, 10°14'N, 84°06'W, 20 Mar. 2005, INBio-OET-ALAS transect, 15/TN/04/012, INB0003675744. Paratypes: same data as allotype, except 15/TN/20/020 (INB0003675955) (1); same data as allotype except 17 Apr. 2005, 15/TN/04/022 (INB0003676180) (1); Costa Rica, Puntarenas, 5 km SW Est. Biol. Las Cruces, 1425 m, 08°46'59"N, 82°59'18"W, 22 VI. 1998, R. Anderson, wet cloud forest litter, 98-108B (2); Costa Rica, S. J., Zurquí de Moravia, 1600 m, IX-1-9-1998, FIT, C.W. & L.B. O’Brien (1). Holotype and allotype deposited in MNCR, 2 paratypes in FSCA, 1 paratype in USNM, 1 paratype in CASC, 1 paratype in ZMBN.

Diagnosis.

Interstriae 10 carinate to level of metacoxa; protibiae without additional mesal tooth. Unique female frons with silky white, soft setae, and one of few species bearing 10 erect pronotal setae where the additional pair is close to the center of the pronotum. Only distantly related to species such as S. banosus (Hagedorn, 1909) and S. hagedorni (Schedl, 1962); more similar to S. obovatus Jordal, 2013 but the new species differs by having a short interstriae 10.

Description female.

Length 1.4-1.7 mm, 1.9-2.0 × as long as wide; color brown to dark brown. Head. Eyes weakly sinuate, separated above by 2.0-2.5 × their width. Frons flattened between eyes from vertex to epistoma, more deeply impressed at level of antennal insertion; surface shiny, smooth, median third impunctate, with dense punctures elsewhere associated with setae. Vestiture consisting of short, soft, silky setae from vertex to epistoma, except in central impunctate area. Antennal club setose, particularly on anterior face, on posterior face with two obliquely procurved sutures, segment 1 large, corneous; funiculus 6- or 7-segmented, segments very thin and disc-like. Pronotum shiny, very weakly reticulate, with shallow, medium-sized punctures spaced on average by their diameter. Vestiture consisting of 10 erect long setae (4 –2–2– 2), and short, fine, recumbent setae on anterior half. Elytra generally smooth and shiny; striae not impressed, punctures shallow, tiny, in longitudinal pairs, each pair separated in rows by their length; interstriae 5 × as wide as striae, punctures of same size as in striae, mainly in rows. Interstriae 10 carinate to level of metacoxa. Vestiture consisting of irregularly placed, erect, interstrial setae of variable length and thickness, and densely placed, fine, short, partly curled, semi-recumbent setae in both striae and interstriae. Legs. Procoxae separated by 0.6 × and mesocoxae 0.9 × the width of one procoxa. Protibiae narrow, oval-parallel-sided, lateral teeth 1 and 2 long and sharp, 2 as long as 1, with 3-4 additional small, sharp spines or granules along the lateral edge towards base; protibial mucro obtuse. Mesotibiae with 6-9 lateral, socketed, small teeth on distal half, the apical 3-4 teeth smaller, forming a dense comb; metatibiae with 5-6 lateral, small, socketed teeth on distal half. Ventral vestiture. Setae on metanepisternum and metasternum simple, on mesanepisternum trifid. Sclerolepidia very small, scale-like.

Male.

Similar to female, except frons slightly more convex, with fewer and shorter setae distributed near inner margin of eyes and antennal insertion.

Key

( Wood 1982). There is a mismatch in couplet 6 (short interstriae 10, but no mesal tooth on protibiae).

Etymology.

The Latin name plenus is a masculine adjective, meaning plump or chubby, referring to the stout body shape.

Biology and distribution.

This species is known from four Costa Rican cloud forest localities - in the northern and southern slopes of Volcan Barva (Braulio Carrillo) and close to the Panama border (Las Cruces). Two specimens were collected by leaf litter sifting, and four specimens by flight intercept trapping.