Embates albovittatus (Champion)

Prena, Jens, 2005, The Middle American species of Embates Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Baridinae), Zootaxa 1100 (1), pp. 1-151 : 1-151

46. Embates albovittatus (Champion)

(Fig. 160, 256)

Ambates albovittatus Champion 1907: 158 . Lectotype male, here designated, Panama, labeled “sp. figured”, “Type”, “ ♂ ”, “Bugaba/ Panama / Champion”, “Genus Cholinambates Casey 1922 ” (BMNH). Paralectotype 1, here designated: Bugaba (BMNH). Hustache 1938 (cat., Cholinambates to subgenus)

Cholinambates albovittatus . Casey 1922: 6

Embates [ albovittatus ]. Alonso­Zarazaga & Lyal 1999 (global combination of all species of Ambates Schönherr 1836 with Embates Chevrolat 1833 )

Redescription. Habitus: as Fig. 162, total length 7.9–8.8 mm (m=8.4, n=5). Color: integument piceous, almost black; basic vestiture of minute, yellow to cupreous scales; scales yellow in continuous (actually compound) dorsolateral vitta between anterior margin of pronotum and preapical callus including metepisternum and flank of metasternum (Fig. 160). Head: frontal fovea minute, rostrum moderate, subcylindrical (as Fig. 163), sides attenuated between apex and antennal insertion, costate dorsomedially, basolateral margin moderately edged, length of rostrum ♂♂ 1.17–1.20 x (m=1.19, n=4), ♀ 1.17–1.31 x (n=1) pronotal length, length of ante­antennal portion ♂♂ 0.35 x (n=4), ♀ 0.38 x (n=1) total rostral length, dorsal margin of antennal scrobe reaching rostral base well before eye; funicular segment 2 distinctly longer than 1, club oblong ovate. Pronotum: length 0.82–0.87 x (m=0.84, n=5) maximum width, widest in basal third, then roundly narrowed, anterior portion tubulate; disk densely punctate, intervals slightly rugose, dorsomedially subcostate or not. Elytra: length 1.79–1.89 x (m=1.81, n=5) width at humeri, width 1.14–1.22 x (m=1.18, n=5) maximum pronotal width, sides subparallel in basal half, apices rounded conjointly, preapical callus weakly developed, striae fine, punctures distinct, interstriae flat, 9 convex. Legs: rather stout, tibia nearly straight, ventral margin with distal cluster of cupreous hairs, tarsal claws arcuate and separate at base. Male: aedeagus as E. obliquus .

Plant association. Not known.

Distribution. Costa Rica and Panama, Pacific side (Fig. 256).

Material examined. COSTA RICA. Puntarenas: Res. Biol. Carara, Est. Quebrada Bonita , 50 m ( INBC, JPPC) ; P.N. Corcovado ( CHAH, INBC) ; Piedras Negras ( SNSD) . PAN­ AMA. Chiriquí: Bugaba ( BMNH 2 ) . Total 7 specimens.

Discussion. This is one example where similarities in the color­patterns were used to establish unacceptable relationships between species of Embates . The Pacific E. albovittatus is a sibling species of E. championi , from the Atlantic side of the Cordillera Central. The continuous dorsolateral vitta consists of several single elements, which are variously separated from another in the related E. discissus and E. championi . Single elements of the color­pattern were merged to compound patterns several times in the genus, and this should be interpreted as a convergence rather than a synapomorphy.