Cervellaea, 2021

Meregalli, Massimo, Borovec, Roman, Cervella, Piero, Santovito, Alfredo, Toševski, Ivo, Ottati, Sara & Nakládal, Oto, 2021, The Namaini, a new weevil tribe with six new genera from South Africa (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 193, pp. 95-123 : 103-105

CERVELLAEA BOROVEC & MEREGALLI , GEN. NOV.

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Type species: Cervellaea coheni Borovec & Meregalli , here designated.

Diagnostic description: Middle-sized Namaini 2.9–4.4 mm long; rostrum with U-shaped stria on epifrons; ventral border of rostrum in profile short, conspicuously shorter than rostral thickness; frons densely squamose; gena and subgena densely squamose; antennal sockets in dorsal view narrowly reniform, in profile not reaching eyes, slender, directed above eyes; antennal scapes conspicuously enlarged apicad, at apex distinctly wider than club; tibiae long and slender; tarsi long and slender, onychium distinctly longer than segment 3; ventrites squamose; suture between ventrite 1 and 2 straight; tegmen with weakly sclerotized short parameres; female sternite VIII with long and slender apodeme terminating at base of plate and forming short basal margins, its plate small, rhombus-shaped to oval.

Etymology: We name this genus after our colleague and friend Piero Cervella (1959–2019), researcher at the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Turin, who set up the sequencing protocol and discussed the preliminary results of the study with much interest. The gender is feminine.

Included taxa and distribution: In addition to the type species, seven additional taxa are included in Cervellaea , based on the mt-Cox1 analysis and/or their morphology. They are distributed in South Africa, in the western and south-western part of the Northern Cape ( Fig. 12) .

CERVELLAEA COHENI BOROVEC & MEREGALLI , SP. NOV. ( FIGS 3, 10B, I, P, 11B, I, P)

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Diagnostic description: Body length 2.88 -3.44 mm, holotype 3.37 mm. Erect setae on elytra short, lanceolate, apically pointed, forming one regular row on each interval, about as long as a third to a quarter the width of one interstria; rostrum subparallel-sided with straight sides; epifrons with concave sides, dorsally slightly shallowed with distinct V-shaped stria; scapes at base distinctly S-shaped; elytra long oval; onychium almost twice as long as previous segment; penis short, widest at base and evenly tapered apicad with rounded tip; endophallus with complex, many times distorted sclerite; spermatheca with ramus long, straight, almost twice as long as wide and collum small, about isodiametric, distant from ramus.

Etymology: During our 2016 expedition, the extraordinary artist Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) passed away, and we wish to name this species after him. Because Piero Cervella had an excellent knowledge of music, it is appropriate to associate this specific epithet with a genus named after him.