Microperus diversicolor (Eggers) Eggers, 2010

Hulcr, Jiri, 2010, New genera of Palaeotropical Xyleborini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) based on congruence between morphological and molecular characters, Zootaxa 2717, pp. 1-33 : 19-20

Microperus diversicolor (Eggers) , comb. n.

Xyleborus diversicolor Eggers 1923

Coptodryas diversicolor Wood and Bright 1992 Xyleborus atavus Schedl, 1979b

Coptodryas atava (Schedl) : Wood and Bright 1992 syn. n. Xyleborus myristicae Schedl 1939b syn. n.

Coptodryas myristicae Wood and Bright 1992 syn. n. Microperus myristicae Hulcr et al., 2007 syn. n.

Specimens examined. X. diversicolor : Philippines, Mindanao, Butuan (holotype, SMTD); Malaysia, Kelantan (1, Hulcr det. BMNH); Malaysia, Sabah, Danum Valley (2, Hulcr det. MSUC); New Guinea (1, Schedl det., FICB); New Guinea, Madang Province, Baiteta (1, Hulcr det. IRSNB); New Guinea, Morobe Province, Bulolo (1, Hulcr det. MSUC); New Guinea, Gulf Province, Ivimka (1, Hulcr det. UCD). X. atavus : New Guinea, Morobe Province, Bulolo (holotype, NHMW); X. myristicae : Indonesia, Java (1, Schedl det., NHMW); Indonesia, Sumatra, Solok (lectotype, NHMW); Indonesia, Java, Maswati (2, co-types, RMNH); X. theae : Indonesia, Java, Buitenzorg (2, Kalshoven det., RMNH); C. myristicae : New Guinea, Gulf Province, Ivimka (1, Beaver det., UCD).

Comments. Unlike most Microperus , M. diversicolor has antennae type 3 or 4 (first segment convex, second segment prominent, sometimes larger than the first, both second and third segments apparent on the posterior face of the club). All other synapomorphies of Microperus are present.

Except for its slightly larger size, holotype of X. atavus resembles holotype of Microperus diversicolor . Schedl (1979b) described X. atavus as related to Xyleborus brevipilosus Eggers , which was later synonymized with Coptodryas myristicae , which in turn is synonymized with M. diversicolor here.

Xyleborus myristicae (Schedl) ( Coptodryas myristicae (Schedl) : Wood and Bright; Microperus myristicae (Schedl) : Hulcr et al. 2007) shares all diagnostic characters with Microperus diversicolor . M. myristicae is a senior name of Xyleborus theae (syn. Wood, 1989), the type species of Microperus Wood 1980c .

Hulcr et al. (2007) transferred Coptodryas myristicae to Microperus , based on examination of non-type specimens identified by Browne. These specimens were nearly identical to the holotype of Coptodryas diversicolor (Eggers) , also transferred to Microperus here, but had antenna of the type 1 (character of M. intermedius ), instead 3 (character of M. diversicolor ). Thus Browne's specimens used by Hulcr et al. were misidentified Microperus intermedius (Eggers) .