Otiorhynchus Germar, 1822

Christoph Germann, Sofia Wyler & Marco Valerio Bernasconi, 2017, DNA barcoding of selected alpine beetles with focus on Curculionoidea (Coleoptera), Revue suisse de Zoologie 124 (1), pp. 15-38 : 23

Genus Otiorhynchus Germar, 1822

Subgenera Metopiorrhynchus Reitter, 1912 pars,

Nihus Reitter, 1912 , Eunihus Reitter, 1912

A large number of the specimens coped with this study belongs to the genus Otiorhynchus (annex 1, Fig. 1 , Supp. 1). This genus is one of the most specious genera – if not the most specious – in weevils. More than 1500 species are presently assigned to this genus and the systematics is midly expressed rather chaotic. Based on our data, the monophyly of Otiorhynchus is supported by insufficient bootstrap values in both the NJ and ML analyses. However, some new insights into alpine subgenera could be gained even if the overall relationships among all the proposed subgenera within this large genus are not always strongly supported in our analyses based on a relatively short fragment of the COI gene.

It was Yunakov (2006) who proposed subgenus Metopiorrhynchus as synonym to Nihus Reitter, 1912 , which was reinstated by Magnano & Alonso-Zarazaga (2013). [The type species of Metopiorrhynchus is O. singularis (Linné, 1767) – included in our samples, and O. carinatopunctatus in Nihus , a sample that remained negative] We here provide support to the former synonymy, where species of Nihus cluster together within the subgenus Metopiorrhynchus . Interestingly, the only representative ( O. grischunensis Germann, 2010 ) of Eunihus , a subgenus which has temporarily been placed in synonymy with Nihus , but is actually accepted as proper subgenus ( Magnano & Alonso-Zarazaga, 2013), does not cluster together with Nihus . Even if the position of Eunihus remains unclear since not supported by enough bootstrap values, our result underlines its self-standing position in relation to the typical Nihus representatives. On the other side, the Corsican endemic species (O. corsicus Fairmaire, 1859) at present assigned to the subgenus Phalantorrhynchus Reitter, 1912 results in the clade Metopiorrhynchus + Nihus (bootstrap support ML: 58; NJ: 61).

Schütte et al. (2013) and Stüben et al. (2015) already provided molecular evidence to a common clade of Nihus + Metopiorrhynchus + Aranihus Reitter, 1912 [represented by the species O. parvicollis Gyllenhal, 1834 and O. ligneus (Olivier, 1807)] + Edelengus Reitter, 1912 (O. atlasicus Escalera, 1914; O. allardi Stierlin, 1872 ).

Figures

Fig. 1. Best Maximum Likelihood tree as selected by MEGA) based on COI sequences of 142 samples of Curculionoidea (Chrysomelidae obtained by using MEGA 6. Values (over 50 %) of bootstrap support from 100 nodes.