Cercopeus strigicollis Sleeper, 1955

O’Brien, Charles W., Ciegler, Janet C. & Girón, Jennifer C., 2010, Weevils of the genus Cercopeus Schoenherr from South Carolina, USA (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), Insecta Mundi 2010 (141), pp. 1-29 : 18-19

Cercopeus strigicollis Sleeper, 1955

( Fig. 13 , 47 )

Diagnosis. Body broad-oval; integument reddish brown to brown, pronotum darker, head piceous; clothed with moderate to small, round to oval, recumbent scales; elytra with an oblique uneven fascia of pale scales from humeri to declivity, and with sparse, pale, oblique slender scales; pronotum striate.

Description. Female. Length, pronotum and elytra: 3.7-5.1 mm. Width, elytra: 2.0- 2.6 mm. Rostrum about as long as head, thick, dorsal contour curved in lateral view, sides slightly wider at antennal insertion; dorsomedian area flat; basal 1/2 sparsely to completely clothed with small pale scales, some specimens with scales partially concealed by agglutinate coating, apical 1/2 with smaller scales; nasal plate poorly to moderately well defined. Head with frons with small, round, deep fovea; frons with moderate-sized scales; vertex striate, with or without oval scales; occiput nearly glabrous, with transverse strigulae; eyes large, oval, slightly convex in dorsal view. Antennae moderately thin, scape unevenly curved, scarcely widened at apex, with small pale scales and sparse long suberect setae; funicular antennomere 1 clavate, as long as 2, 2 more slender but clavate, 3 and 4 slightly elongate and half as long as 2, 5-7 slightly wider, club elongate-oval, about as long as antennomeres 4-7. Prothorax 1.13× wider than long, sides strongly evenly rounded, widest at middle, very weakly constricted near apex; lateral margins rounded in anterior view; disc striolate, scales small and elongate-oval at middle, with narrow to broad margin of larger pale scales; inflexed area of pleuron rugose with dense small plumose scales; suberect setae short and fine. Elytra short broad-oval, 0.73× as wide as long, broadest 1/6 from base behind rounded humeri, sides somewhat parallel to apical third, then rounded evenly to apex, apices conjointly rounded; uniformly reddish brown, disc with moderately dense noncontiguous dark brown round scales and oblique fascia of pale scales from humeri to declivity, apical area and sides with noncon- tiguous medium-sized scales; striae wide and deep, striae1-6 with large deep contiguous punctures, 7-10 with small punctures; intervals flat, on disc subequal in width, each with row of fine long setae. Legs stout, forefemur inflated, with large to small scales contiguous near femoral apices, and with long, thin, suberect setae; foretibia with flattened rounded apex, anteapical spine on external margin, with apical internal stout moderately long acute mucro, and dense row of six to eight long pale spines at outer angle, inner margin sinuate, not denticulate; middle and hind tibiae each with row of about 20 long pale spines on outer margin. Venter with small noncontiguous plumose scales; abdominal sterna moderately shiny with few medium-sized punctures, fine and dense sparse scales, and dense long fine recumbent setae; abdominal sternum I convex, nearly twice as long as II; II slightly convex and nearly as long as III +IV; III + IV subequal; V longer than II, flat with slight transverse groove. Genitalia: Tergum VII ( Fig. 47a ) 1.1× wider than long, anterior margin rounded, 1.7× wider than posterior margin; lateral and posterior margins straight. Tergum VIII ( Fig. 47b ) 1.4× wider than long, anterior and posterior margins emarginate, lateral margins straight; anterior margin 2.3× wider than posterior margin; with setae on marginal area. Sternum VIII ( Fig. 47c ) 0.6× length of sterna I-V together, shovel-shaped, with lamina 1.8× longer than wide, with apical half and median basilongitudinal region more sclerotized than basal half, with one lateral submarginal seta. Coxites + styli ( Fig. 47d ) 1.2× length of lamina of sternum VIII; apex of coxites with one apical seta; styli apicoventrally inserted, 2.5× longer than basal width, apically rounded. Genital chamber 0.7× length of sternum VIII. Spermatheca ( Fig. 47e ) 4.4× longer than wide, j-shaped; cornu rounded (c-shaped), parallel to collum; ramus apically truncate, laterally rounded; collum apically rounded; surface of corpus, collum, and ramus reticulate

Male. Unknown.

Remarks and comparative notes. This species differs from all congenerics by the distinct anteapical foretibial spine present in only two other species. The unusual head and rostrum of C. simius readily separates these two species, and C. chrysorrhoeus is in general much smaller and lacks the uniformly striolate pronotum.

Range. AL, GA, NC, SC ( O’Brien and Wibmer 1982).

Materials examined. FLORIDA (New state record): Jackson Co., Florida Caverns State Park , 12 April 1989, F. Deyrup ( CWOB) ; SOUTH CAROLINA: Charleston Co. Charleston, Nov. 1974, A. Solomon (2) ( CUAC) ; Clarendon Co., Woods Bay State Park , Sept. 27, 2008 (1) ( CWOB) ; Dorchester Co., Summerville , 2007, dead with fossils (1) ( JCCC) ; Florence Co, Clemson Oct. 17, 1957, Nov. 18 1957, Wall HH (2) ( CUAC) .

Figures

Figure 11-15. Habitus of Cercopeus species: dorsal view, lateral view, and life-size silhouette. 11) C. skelleyi, male. 12) Same, female. 13) C. strigicollis, female. 14) C. tibialis, male. 15) Same, female.

Figure 40-48. Female genitalia of Cercopeus species: a. tergum VII, dorsal view; b. tergum VIII, dorsal view; c. sternum VIII, ventral view; d. coxite, lateral view; e. spermatheca. 40) C. alexi. 41) C. chrysorrhoeus. 42) C. cornelli. 43) C. femoratus. 44) C. maspavancus. 45) C. paulus. 46) C. skelleyi. 47) C. strigicollis. 48) C. tibialis. Scale bars: 0.5 mm for a, b and c; 0.2 mm for d and e.