Eudyasmus albertisii Pascoe, 1885: 275

Setliff, Gregory, Pancini, Lorenzo & Bramanti, Andrea, 2021, Review of Eudyasmus, with descriptions of a new species from Waigeo Island, Indonesia, and a closely related new genus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Molytinae, Eudyasmini), Fragmenta entomologica 53 (2), pp. 377-390 : 383-384

Eudyasmus albertisii Pascoe, 1885: 275

( Figs 7 , 8 , 12a,b )

Specimens Examined. Papua New Guinea: 1♂, N.G. / Fly River (handwritten in Pascoe’s hand on small blue oval) ( BMNH) ; 1 ♀, 2 ♂ Papua New Guinea / E. Sepik Prov., Elem Vill / ca. 90 m . 18–21 Mar. 2003 / Coll. G.P. Setliff // Hand collected in primary / and secondary forest / nr. Yuat River / 143°56’E, 04°53’S ( GPSC) ; 1 ♀, 2 ♂ NEWGUINEA / APO 565 [APO 565 = Army Post Office 565: Hollandia = Jayapu- ra] // IV-1-45/ SG Jewett ( USNM) ; 1 ♀, 1 ♂ NEWGUINEA / APO 565 // IV-10-45 / SG Jewett ( USNM) ; 2 ♀, NEWGUINEA / Hollandia // II-4-12-45 / SG Jewett ( USNM) ; 1 ♀, NEWGUINEA? / I-3-45 / SG Jewett ( USNM) ; 1 ♀, Papua New Guinea / E. Sepik Province / Amboin Patrol Post / Karawari Lodge / Feb. 1983, A.C. Messer ( USNM) ; 2 ♂, N. Guniea / Doria (handwritten in Faust hand) // Coll J. Faust / Ankauf 1900 ( SMTD) ; 1 ♀, Kais. Wilhelmsland / Torricelli Gegirge / Dr. Schlaginhaufen ( SMTD) ; 1♂, Bongu / Dtsch. N. - Gu // Schneider // Samml. KF. Hartmann / Ankauf 1941.1 ( SMTD) ; 1♂, N. Guinea // Gehr. W. Müller / Vermäch. 1909 ( SMTD) ; 1♂, Moroka, / Brit. N. G., / 3500 ft., X. 95. / (An- thony). // Coll J. Faust / Ankauf 1900 ( SMTD) ; 1♂, Newguinea / v. Benningsen // Kani Geb // Coll v. Bennigsen ( SDEI) ; 2 ♀, N. Guinea Exped. / Mamberamo Riv. / W.C. v Herrn Dez 20- / Jan 21 Pionierbivak ( SDEI) ; 2 ♂, 1 ♀, N. W. N. Guinea // ex Museo / Buitenzorg ( SDEI) ; 1 ♀, Dtsch. N. / Guinea ( SDEI) . The holotype of E. albertisii was previously examined by the second author at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale “Giacomo Doria”, Genoa, Italy, but the specimen was not borrowed for this study. The specimen that was examined from the BMNH had Pascoe’s distinctive specimen label and matched the type locality of the type.

Diagnosis. TL 7.0– 11.3 mm, EW 2.8–5.3 mm. This species is most easily recognized by the large, oblique, oval, white macula on each side of the pronotum. These lateral maculae vary in size but nearly always start near the head and reach the middle of the pronotal sides. These maculae do not reach the basal margin as they do in E. basalis sp. nov. and E. praecox . The pronotal disk has a (sometimes faint) medial longitudinal vitta of whitish-tan scales that can run the full length of the pronotum or fade before reaching the basal margin. There is a transverse fascia across the entire basal margin of the elytra and a sutural stripe that starts in the just behind the post-scutellar depression near the apical margin and reaches the elytral apex. These dorsal pronotal and elytral markings are usually whitish in color, but can also be yellowish-white, tan, or rarely brown. The vestiture of the tibia varies in this species as well; even among specimens from the same locality. Most specimens have a thick row of stout whitish scales along the dorsal edge of each tibia; however, these scales are dark brown in others. Similarly, some have, in addition to the darker background scales, evenly distributed, semierect, white, hair-like scales on flat surfaces of the tibia, whereas in other specimens the tibia will be almost entirely clothed in matte black or dark brown background scales only.

Distribution. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Morobe, Madang, East Sepik, Sandaun, and Western Provinces and INDONESIA: Papua Province ( Fig. 1 ).

Comments on Distribution. This species is the most widely distributed in the genus. It is known from lowland and mid-elevation rainforest habitat throughout the north coastal region of Papua New Guinea and into the Indonesian side of the island along the same coast. Curiously, the type locality is in vicinity of the Fly River in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, which is quite remote from the north coast specimens examined for this study. Several possible explanations for this disjunct distribution exist, including: imperfect sampling of the intervening lowland rainforest areas, E. albertisii belonging to a cryptic species complex, or Pascoe misreporting the type locality. Unlikely as it may be, perhaps this species made its way up the Fly River valley and crossed over the mountains to the Sepik River valley in the same way that Karius and Champion did in 1927 ( Champion 1932). Future work will be required to solve this mystery .

Figures

Fig. 7 – Eudyasmus albertisii Pascoe, 1885;a, Male, dorsal view;b, Female, dorsal view.

Fig. 8 – Eudyasmus albertisii Pascoe, 1885; a, Male, lateral view; b, Female, lateral view.

Fig. 12 – Prothoracic leg details; a, Eudyasmus albertisii Pascoe, 1885, female (PM = premucro, U = uncus, SUP = supra-uncal projection); b, same, male; c, Protrachyasmus planidorsis (Heller, 1908) comb. nov., male.

Fig. 1 – Distribution of the species of Eudyasmus Pascoe, 1885 and Protrachyasmus Setliff gen. nov. Filled in symbols = type locality. Base map from MapCreator 3.0.