Hoplocopturus Heller, 1895

Hespenheide, Henry A., 2009, Two New Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Conoderinae) from Cocos Island, Costa Rica, The Coleopterists Bulletin 63 (3), pp. 333-339 : 334

Hoplocopturus Heller, 1895

The following species is superficially very much like members of the genus Lechriops Schoenherr in a number of details of setal pattern of the pronotum and elytra. Delimitation of genera within the Conoderinae has become more difficult with the discovery of large numbers of undescribed species that link genera or do not fit current generic concepts. Currently, about two dozen described species of Hoplocopturus are known to occur from Mexico to Bolivia (O’Brien and Wibmer 1982, Wibmer and O’Brien 1986), although as many as 50 species may occur at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica (Hespenheide, unpublished). Species of Hoplocopturus are often larger than 4 mm in length, possess an elongate second segment of the antennal funiculus, have the mesosternum with an inverted Ushaped carina, the metasternum unmodified, and have femora armed beneath and with an acuminate tooth on the interior apical angle. Lechriops are usually less than 3 mm in length, have the mesosternum deeply excavate with parallel margins, and the metasternum deeply excavate anteriorly with a carinate margin. The species that follows has femora that are weakly armed and lack the inner apical acuminate tooth, but possess a Hoplocopturus -like meso- and metasternum.