Zimmiodes australis, Hsiao & Oberprieler, 2024

Hsiao, Yun & Oberprieler, Rolf G., 2024, An integrative taxonomic and phylogenetic approach reveals a new genus of Australasian Cycas-pollinating weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cossoninae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Zool. J. Linn. Soc.) 202 (2), pp. 1-22 : 7-18

Zimmiodes australis sp.nov.

( Figs 8A, B, 9A, B, 10A, C, 11A, C, E, 12A–C, 13A, B, 14)

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0BCB4DF9-22DF-4C1D-8926-029FB03D52BA

Type locality

Mulgrave River Forestry Road, Wooroonooran, Queensland, Australia.

Type material

Holotype, ♂: 2. XI. 2019 / AU: QLD: 17°12'37.0"S / 145°44'58.9"E / Mulgrave River Rd. , / Wooroonooran / Y. Hsiao, Z. Liu & H. Escalona / leg. // Ex ♂ cone of Cycas media / banksii // HOLOTYPE / Zimmiodes australis / Hsiao & Oberprieler, 2024 ( ANIC) .

Paratypes (all labelled ‘ PARATYPE / Zimmiodes australis / Hsiao & Oberprieler, 2024’): 15 ♂♂, 14 ♀♀, same as holotype ( ANIC) .

Other material

Northern Territory: 30 miles south of Berry Spring , 13 August 1964, Cycas armstrongii, P.B. Carne leg. (1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, 9 exx., ANIC) ; 30 miles south of Darwin , September 1969, Cycas armstrongii, R.H. Wharton leg. (1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, 16 exx., ANIC) ; Channel Point via Stapleton Station , 25 November 1982, Cycas canalis, C. Wilson leg. (1 ♂, 7 exx., ANIC) ; Rum Jungle, Darwin region , 29 June 1987, Cycas armstrongii, A.N. Andersen leg. (2 exx., ANIC) ; Arnhem Highway, 3.1 km east junction with Wanderrie Road , 15 July 1990, Cycas armstrongii, R. Ornduff leg. (1 ♂, 2 exx., ANIC) ; Road to Mandorah, west of Stuart Highway , southwest of Darwin , 17 July 1990, Cycas armstrongii, R. Ornduff leg. (1 ♂, 1 ex., ANIC) ; Acacia Hills, along Stuart Highway, south of Darwin , 18 July 1990, Cycas armstrongii, R. Ornduff leg. (1 ♀, 1 ex., ANIC) ; Humpty Doo , 20. August 1995, Cycas armstrongii, J. Risler leg. (2 ♂♂, 9 exx., ANIC) ; 12°27 ʹ 14.0″S, 130°55 ʹ 26.0″E, Wishart, Darwin , 8 April 2006, Cycas armstrongii, M.F. Braby leg. (1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, 23 exx., ANIC) ; 12°24 ʹ S, 130°55 ʹ E, Berrimah , 12 September 2006, Cycas armstrongii, M.F. Braby leg. (60 exx., 22 larvae, 15 pupae, ANIC) ; Darwin , 15 August 2006, Cycas armstrongii, M.F. Braby leg. (222 exx., ANIC, ANIC database no. 25 077620–25 077621) ; 12°23 ʹ 16.0″S, 136°37 ʹ 08.0″E, Repeater Station, Gove Peninsula , 21 August 2007, Cycas orientis, R.G. Oberprieler leg. (24 exx., ANIC, ANIC database no. 25 077624–25 077625) ; Goyder River Crossing, Arnhem Land , 27 August 2007, Cycas arnhemica, R.G. Oberprieler leg. (74 exx., ANIC, ANIC database no. 25 077622–25 077623) ; 12°28'48.0"S 130°43'48.0"E, 7 km south Wagait, Cox Peninsula , 1 July 2021, Cycas maconochiei, R.G. Oberprieler leg. (1 ♂, 5 larvae, 5 pupae, 413 exx., ANIC) . Queensland: same as type series (537 exx., ANIC, ANIC database no. 25 077599, 25 077615) ; Bamaga , Cycas semota , B. & Y. Dalzielleg. (nodate) (1637 exx., ANIC) ; RockyRiver, EastCoast, Silver Plains , Cape York Peninsula , 18 November 1958, Cycas media ensata, J.L. Wassell leg. (2 ♂♂, l larva, 15 exx., ANIC) ; 15 miles west of Gordonvale , 13 December 1966, B. Cantrell leg. (1 ♂, 21 exx., ANIC) ; Bamaga , Cape York, 15–18 June 1969, Cycas semota, G.B. Monteith leg. (1 ♂, 6 exx., ANIC, ANIC database no. 25 077618–25 077619) ; 15°24'36.0"S 145°07'12.0"E, Annan R. 3 km west by south of Black Mountain , 27 November 1980, Cycas media ensata, T. Weir leg. (1 ♂, 1 ♀, 11 exx., ANIC) ; 17°07'48.0"S 145°27'00.0"E, Mulgrave R. Valley, 13 km south by west of Gordonvale , 15 November 1981, J. Balderson leg. (1 ♂, 2 exx., ANIC) ; 17°09'36.0"S 145°15'36.0"E, 2 km west northwest of Mt. Baldy , 860 m, 29 March 1984, Cycas sp. , A. Calder & T. Weir leg. (2 ♂♂, 95 exx., ANIC) ; 17°12'36.0"S 144°32'24.0"E, 23 km east Almaden , 500 m, 31 March 1984, Cycas platyphylla, A. Calder & T. Weir leg. (2 ♂♂, 1 ♀, 33 exx., ANIC) ; Atherton Rifle Range , 17 December 1986, H. & A. Howden leg. (1 ♀, ANIC) ; 6 km north Ellis Beach near Cairns , 7 November 1988, Cycas media banksii, R. Ornduff leg. (1 ♂, 1 ♀, 92 exx., ANIC) ; Gillies Range Highway , 14 February 1988, Cycas media banksii, R.G. Oberprieler leg. (14 pupae, 236 exx., ANIC) ; 17°12'36.0"S 144°31'48.0"E, 3.3 km past Petford on Almaden road, 1 June 1991, Cycas platyphylla, P.I. Forster leg. (1 ♂, 1 ♀, 36 exx., ANIC) ; Keppel Sands , 23 October 1991, Cycas ophiolitica, G.W. Wilson leg. (2 ♂♂, 16 exx., ANIC) ; 23°20 ʹ S, 150°43 ʹ E, 6.5 km along Keppel Sands Road off Emu Park Road, Ross Range , 4 November 1992, Cycas ophiolitica, P.I. Forster & P.J. Machin leg. (229 exx., ANIC) ; 23°01 ʹ S, 150°16 ʹ E, 1 km west of Glen Geddes , 4 November 1992, Cycas ophiolitica, P.I. Forster & P.J. Machin leg. (16 exx., ANIC) ; 24°26 ʹ S, 151°26 ʹ E, Blackman’s Gap Road, 18 km from Bruce Highway near Miriam Vale , 4 November 1992, Cycas megacarpa, P.I. Forster & P.J. Machin leg. (5 exx., ANIC) ; 24°31 ʹ S, 151°25 ʹ E, Bulburin Road, 5 km off Builyan to Bundaberg Road , 5 November 1992, Cycas megacarpa, P.I. Forster & P.J. Machin leg. (14 exx., ANIC) ; Keppel Sands , 1 October 1994, Cycas ophiolitica, G.W. Wilson leg. (4 exx., ANIC) ; Tungamul , 8 January 1995, Cycas ophiolitica, G.W. Wilson leg. (3 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀, 8 exx., ANIC) ; 17°02 ʹ S, 145°21 ʹ E, Granite Gorge , 450 m, 26 November 1997, Cycas sp. , Monteith, Cook & Burwell leg. (7 exx., QMBA) ; 24°04 ʹ 30″S, 150°39 ʹ 11″E, State Forest 618, 38 km north northeast of Biloela , 22 November 2003, Cycas megacarpa, P.I. Forster leg. (14 exx., ANIC) ; 24°08 ʹ 24.74″S, 150°44 ʹ 19.52″E, 10 December 2018, probably Cycas ophiolitica (no collector) (8 exx., ANIC, ANIC database no. 25 077616–25 077617) ; Near Palm Cove, Captain Cook Highway , 29 October 2019, Cycas media banksii, Y. Hsiao leg. (8 exx., ANIC) ; 16°42 ʹ 07.7″S, 145°37 ʹ 18.9″E, Captain Cook Highway , 2 November 2019, Cycas media banksii, Y. Hsiao & L. Li leg. (1 ♂, 3 exx., ANIC) ; 17°09 ʹ 08.3″S, 145°42 ʹ 18.0″E, Little Mulgrave Forest Reserve, Lamb Range , ~ 220 m, 2 November 2019, Cycas media banksii, Y. Hsiao & H. Escalona leg. (1 ♂, 27 exx., ANIC) ; 16°37 ʹ 46.0″S, 145°32 ʹ 56.5″E, Oak Beach, Captain Cook Highway , 2 November 2019, Cycas media banksii, Y. Hsiao & L. Li leg. (1 ♂, 39 exx., ANIC) .

Diagnosis

Adults of this species are distinguishable from Z. papuanus by the following characters (states of Z. papuanus in parentheses): rostrum nearly straight, slightly ventrally curved, slightly thickened at antennal insertions ( Figs 8A, B, 9A, B) (distinctly ventrally curved, distinctly thickened at antennal insertions; Figs 8C, D, 9C, D); eyes strongly convex and protruding ( Figs 8A, B, 9A, B) (slightly flatter; Figs 8C, D, 9C, D); scapes thinner and internal margin of funicle segments 1 straight ( Fig. 10A) (scapes thicker and internal margin of funicle segments 1 distinctly emarginate basally; Fig. 10B); pronotal punctures coarser ( Fig. 8A, B) (finer; Fig. 8C, D); elytral interstriae distinctly convex ( Figs 8A, B, 9A, B) (flatter; Figs 8C, D, 9C, D); profemora moderately narrowing apicad ( Fig. 10C) (distinctly obtusely protruding inwards in male; Fig. 10D); sternite VIII of male with smaller sclerotized lateral plates and larger membranous apical plate, of female with lateral margins angled apically ( Fig. 11A, C) (of male with larger lateral plates and smaller apical plate, of female with lateral margins slightly rounded apically; Fig. 11B, D); tegmen with manubrium longer ( Fig. 12A–C) (very short; Fig. 12D–F); penis short and thick, with temones ~2.0× as long as body of penis ( Fig. 12A–C) (elongate and slender, with temones ~1.2× as long as body of penis; Fig. 12D–F); endophallus short, medially with a sleeve of weakly developed denticles, basally with a pair of sclerites ( Fig. 12A–C) (long, extending below body of penis, medially with a sleeve of strongly developed denticles, apically with a pair of sclerites; Fig. 12D–F).

Description

Shape and size: Body slender and elongate ( Fig. 8A, B), length 2.3–3.2 mm in both sexes, width ~0.35–0.37× length, weakly convex in lateral view ( Fig. 9A, B).

Colour and vestiture: Body and legs reddish to blackish brown, semilustrous, glabrous.

Head: Rostrum: moderately long, as long as pronotum, robust, slightly thinner in female, nearly straight, slightly ventrally curved, dorsoventrally flattened, slightly broadened apically in dorsal view, coarsely punctate dorsally, punctures finer in distal half. Eyes: subcircular in outline, strongly convex and protruding ( Fig. 3A, B). Antennae: inserted close to base of rostrum in male and female ( Figs 8A, B, 9A, B); scapes reaching eye; funicles with segment 1 ~0.9×, 1.6×, 1.6×, and 1.5× as long as segments 2–5, respectively; clubs stout, ~1.7–1.8× as long as wide, densely and finely pubescent ( Figs 3C, 10A).

Thorax: Pronotum: roundly trapezoidal, apex ~0.6× as wide as base ( Fig. 3D); anterior and posterior margins subtruncate, lateral margins mostly rounded, distinctly narrowed anteriorly; disc weakly and evenly convex; surface densely and distinctly punctate. Scutellar shield: roundly pentagonal. Elytra: ~2.1– 2.2× as long as pronotum, jointly ~0.5× as broad as long, slightly broader base of pronotum; humeri broadly rounded, slightly protruding; surface slightly evenly convex, deeply and coarsely punctate in rows, forming distinct striae. Legs: femora ventrally without subapical tooth ( Figs 4, 10C); tibiae with premucro smaller than uncus; tarsi with claws free, divergent.

Terminalia : Sternite VIII of male subtrapezoidal, plates sclerotized, slanting, apical margin rounded, sparsely covered with short setae subapically, basal margin strongly sclerotized ( Fig. 11A), of female abruptly angled laterally, with apical margin densely covered with short setae ( Fig. 11C); spiculum gastrale strongly curved apically, base lightly sclerotized ( Fig. 11E); tegmen with complete ring, without parameroid lobes, manubrium short; penis thick (~1.6– 1.8× as long as wide), subparallel-sided, slightly widening apicad, moderately narrowed apically, dorsum strongly sclerotized, without median groove, apical margin dorsally roundly emarginate, ventrally broadly rounded, apical opening with a pair of lanceolate orificial sclerites, temones slender, ~2.0× as long as body of penis, anteriorly confluent, joined ventrally to body of penis ( Fig. 12A–C); endophallus short, membranous, medially with a sleeve of dense, weakly developed denticles, basally with a pair of slender sclerites, bent outwards; ovipositor with gonocoxites slender, elongate, apically bluntly rounded, styli short, subcylindrical, bluntly rounded and setose apically ( Fig. 13A); spermatheca evenly narrow, right-angled, gland elongate, narrowing apicad, rounded apically ( Fig. 13B).

Derivation of name

The specific epithet australis means ‘southern’, referring to the only known distribution of the species in Australia.

Distribution

This species is known from the coastal regions of the Northern Territory to central Queensland ( Fig. 14). Owing to the distributional range of Cycas in Australia, it is probably also distributed in northern Western Australia, and it might also occur in southern Papua New Guinea, where three species of the Cycad media group occur ( Hill 1994).

Natural history

The species apparently has a considerably wide range of hosts, including Cycas armstrongii , Cycas arnhemica , Cycas canalis , Cycas maconochiei , Cycas media banksii , Cycas media ensata , Cycas megacarpa , Cycas ophiolitica , Cycas orientis , Cycas platyphylla and Cycas semota . The role of Z. australis in the pollination of Cycas has been studied by Hall and Walter (2018), who mentioned it as an undescribed weevil ( Curculionidae ). Based on our field observations on Cycas media banksii in northern Queensland ( Fig. 1A) and on Cycas armstrongii , Cycas arnhemica and Cycas maconochiei in the Northern Territory, large numbers of adults congregate among the sporophylls of microstrobili (male cones) during the coning period, with> 500 adults collected from a single cone ( Fig. 1B, C), and smaller numbers of weevils also gather in young (closed) megastrobili, predominantly among the inner sporophylls. The larvae develop only in the male cones, tunnelling and feeding in the sporophylls and the central rachis ( Fig. 1F), where they also pupate ( Fig. 1G), not leaving the cones to pupate in surrounding substrates as do some species of Tranes Schoenherr ( Hall et al. 2004) and Miltotranes Zimmerman ( Hsiao and Oberprieler 2020a) . The adults eclose from their pupal chambers on the lower surface of the outer (thicker) part of the sporophylls and inside the disintegrating rachis. As reported in previous studies ( Ornduff 1991, Forster et al. 1994), Z. australis commonly co-exists with certain other beetles in the male cones, mainly Aethina (Circopes) unguiculata Kirejtshuk, 1987 ( Nitidulidae ), Hapalips sp. ( Erotylidae ) and Ulomoides australis (Carter, 1932) ( Tenebrionidae ), but the numbers of these beetles are considerably smaller than those of Z. australis . Adults of Z. australis also visit young (closed) female strobili of Cycas ( Oberprieler 2004, Hall and Walter 2018) and play a major role in the pollination of their hosts ( Hall and Walter 2018).