Trachyphloeosoma rutiani Zhu, Wang & Zhen 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Zhu, Jiang
name: Wang, Cheng-Bin
name: Zhen, Ye
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Curculionidae
Trachyphloeosoma
Trachyphloeosoma rutiani

description: Trachyphloeosoma rutiani Zhu, Wang & Zhen sp. nov.
Materials
Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Jiang Zhu; Rutian Ye; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: Adult; occurrenceID: CA0F6CF4-BA6D-5B55-A9AD-BF82125AFDCC; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Guangdong; verbatimLocality: Guangzhou City, Tianhe Distrct, near Shaojiwo Reservoir (广东省 , 广州市 , 天河区 , 筲箕窝水库); verbatimElevation: 158 m; decimalLatitude: 23.23465577; decimalLongitude: 113.39828036; geodeticDatum: WGS 84; Event: verbatimEventDate: 28-09-2024; habitat: leaf litter; Record Level: institutionID: SCIES
Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Jiang Zhu; Rutian Ye; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: Adult; occurrenceID: 5658556B-4F0A-55C5-90A9-9E1BF034120F; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Guangdong; verbatimLocality: Guangzhou City, Tianhe Distrct, near Shaojiwo Reservoir (广东省 , 广州市 , 天河区 , 筲箕窝水库); verbatimElevation: 158 m; decimalLatitude: 23.23465577; decimalLongitude: 113.39828036; geodeticDatum: WGS 84; Event: verbatimEventDate: 28-09-2024; habitat: leaf litter; Record Level: institutionID: MYNU
Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Jiang Zhu, Ru-Tian Ye & Zhen-Yu Piao; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: Adult; occurrenceID: 168FC8A7-0BA0-5E0E-A075-D8AE284361EA; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Guangdong; verbatimLocality: Heyuan City, Zijin County, Baixi Provincial Nature Reserve; verbatimElevation: 274 m; decimalLatitude: 23.707126; decimalLongitude: 115.175949; geodeticDatum: WGS 84; Event: verbatimEventDate: 28-09-2024; habitat: leaf litter; Record Level: institutionID: MYNU
Description
Holotype female. Body length: holotype 2.33 mm, paratypes 2.26–2.41 mm. Body (Fig. 2) most rusty dark brown; antennae and legs lighter, reddish-brown. Entire body, except antennal flagellum and tarsi, covered by sparse yellowish scales; antennal flagellum densely covered by short yellowish setae; head, pronotum, elytra except central and lateral areas, legs except tarsi, covered by specialised star-shaped, yellowish, short setae; specialised setae on elytra and legs much finer. Entire body in dermatoglyph texture; head, pronotum and elytra densely coriaceous, all interstriae finely punctate, yellowish erect setae on only odd interstriae.
Head (Fig. 3) coriaceous, finely rugose and punctate, with three main vertical grooves on frons, each groove divided into several sculptures and ridges (Figs 1, 2, 5) on vertex. Rostrum wider than long, tapered anteriad, widest at base. Epistome convex, tilting backwards, separated from frons by crescent-shaped, raised ridge. Scrobes in dorsal view mostly visible, in lateral view short and gradually enlarged posteriad into a separated reniform groove before eyes, opened at posteroventral margin. Rostrum in lateral view slightly vaulted, at the same level as head. Eyes small, convex, oval, slightly prominent from outline of head, composed of about 15 separated facets. Postgena with several waterdrop-shaped grooves in a vertical row, each groove filled with flocculent microhairs.
Antennae (Fig. 4 B) moderately long. Scape as long as funicle plus club, distinctly curved at proximal half, gradually enlarged apicad, at apex about 0.7 × as wide as widest part of club. Funicle with seven antennomeres, antennomeres 1–2 conical, antennomeres 3–4 compressed into short cylinders, antennomeres 5–7 cup-shaped. Club ovoid, large. Length of each antennomere in mm: scape (0.43), funicular antennomere 1 (0.10), funicular antennomere 2 (0.05), funicular antennomere 3 (0.02), funicular antennomere 4 (0.03), funicular antennomere 5 (0.02), funicular antennomere 6 (0.03), funicular antennomere 7 (0.04), club (0.16); width of each antennomere in mm: funicular antennomere 1 (0.06), funicular antennomere 2 (0.04), funicular antennomere 3 (0.04), funicular antennomere 4 (0.04), funicular antennomere 5 (0.04), funicular antennomere 6 (0.05), funicular antennomere 7 (0.06) and club (0.10).
Pronotum (Fig. 2 A and Fig. 5 A) 1.04 × wider than long, widest at mid-length, hexagonal, constricted behind anterior margin. Anterior margin distinctly narrower than posterior margin. Disc finely rugose and punctate, intensified into a large, moderately wide longitudinal medial furrow along entire length, with ill-defined margins. Except for medial furrow, entire pronotum covered by star-shaped yellowish short setae, with interval erect yellowish setae at outer margins.
Elytra (Fig. 2 A and Fig. 5 B, D) elongated oval, 1.29 × longer than wide, widest at mid-length, sides regularly rounded. Striae coarsely punctate, twice as wide as interstriae, each punctate circular. Interstriae densely covered by weak specialised star-shaped, yellowish, short setae; with yellowish erect setae on only odd interstriae, gradually more developed from base to apex and from interstria 1 to interstria 7, all setae not narrower than interstriae on declivity. Scutellar shield small, trapezoidal, margin indistinct (Fig. 5 B).
Protibiae (Fig. 4 A) coriaceous, long and slender, covered by weak, specialised, star-shaped, yellowish, short setae, 6.25 × longer than width at mid-length, apically obliquely subtruncate, with dense fringe of fine yellowish setae, with robust yellowish mucro. Tarsi short and thick, claws free.
Abdomen (Fig. 6 A) 1.13 × longer than wide. Ventrite 1 + 2 sparsely roughly punctate, ventrite 1 slightly longer than 2, ventrite 2 visibly longer than 3 + 4, ventrite 5 covered by specialised, star-shaped, yellowish, short setae Suture 1 fine, slightly sinuous, surrounded by specialised, star-shaped, yellowish, short setae, other sutures straight, deep. Intercoxal process of abdominal ventrite 1 flat.
Female genitalia (Fig. 6 B and C): Sternite VIII with long, slender apodeme, about 4 × as long as plate; plate rhombic, with distinct, slender, medial longitudinal emargination extending along distal 2 / 3 of plate. Spermatheca with long and irregularly curved cornu; corpus slender, indistinct; ramus small, slightly longer than wide; collum distinctly irregularly curved, apex truncated, exactly reaching extended line of corpus.
Male. Unknown.
Diagnosis
By having a longitudinal median furrow along the entire length of the pronotum, Trachyphloeosoma rutiani sp. nov. is similar to T. ales Borovec & Anderson 2022. They can be distinguished by T. rutiani sp. nov. having erect setae on elytra on only odd interstriae, the shape of the scrobes (scrobes more straight and sharp in T. ales, also opened at posteroventral margin; gradually enlarged posteriad into a separated reniform groove before eyes, opened at posteroventral margin in T. rutiani sp. nov.), ridges behind eyes (T. ales has ridges behind eyes at the same level as the eyes; T. rutiani sp. nov. much higher), shape of the plate of sternite VIII (T. ales with entire plate of sternite VIII; T. rutiani sp. nov. with distinct, slender, longitudinal emargination extending along distal 2 / 3 of plate), shape of spermatheca (T. ales has ramus and collum not developed; T. rutiani sp. nov. has ramus small, collum distinctly irregularly curved).
By having elevated ridges behind the eyes and slender and long protibiae, T. rutiani is similar to T. jirka Ren, Borovec & Zhang 2020; they can be distinguished by T. rutiani sp. nov. having a longitudinal median furrow along the entire length of the pronotum, having erect setae on elytra on only odd interstriae, by the shape of the plate of sternite VIII (T. jirka with entire plate of sternite VIII; T. rutiani sp. nov. with distinct, slender, longitudinal emargination extending along distal 2 / 3 of plate), shape of spermatheca (T. jirka has ramus not developed, collum very small, hump-shaped; T. rutiani sp. nov. has ramus small, collum distinctly irregularly curved).
By the shape of the female terminalia, T. rutiani sp. nov. is similar to T. martin Ren, Borovec & Zhang 2020; they can be distinguished by T. rutiani sp. nov. having a longitudinal median furrow along the entire length of the pronotum (more like T. ales), elevated ridges behind the eyes (more like T. jirka), slender proleg (more like T. jirka), longer elytra, strongly convex postgena (more like T. jirka; much more flat in T. martin), the shape of the plate of sternite VIII (T. martin with longitudinal emargination extending along distal 1 / 2 of plate and plate rounder), different shape of the spermatheca, long and irregularly curved cornu, ramus moderately longer than wide, collum long and irregularly curved.
T. rutiani sp. nov. is quite similar to T. roelofsi Sharp, 1896. A differential diagnosis is presented in Table 1.
Etymology
The species is named after one of the collectors, Ru-tian Ye [叶如天], younger brother of the third author, who participated in the fieldwork. The name is a noun in the genitive case.
Distribution
China (Guangdong) (Fig. 7).
Biology
All specimens were collected in the deciduous layer of a mixed secondary broad-leaved forest and bamboo forest, mainly composed of Ficus concinna (Moraceae), Litchi chinensis (Sapindaceae), Castanopsis hystrix (Fagaceae) and Blechnopsis orientalis (Blechnaceae) (Fig. 8).
Notes
Morphological characters of the new species are similar to T. roelofsi (Japan; Taiwan, China), T. ales (Taiwan, China), T. jirka (Vietnam; Jiangxi, China) and T. martin (Hainan, China) and their geographical distributions are close to each other, many features on the head can only be observed after clearing out the earth-like encrustation. The Trachyphloeosoma, as a wingless terricolous beetle genus north to Japan in Asia, may still have enormous potential in terms of species diversity in the further north part of China.
description: Published as part of Zhu, Jiang, Wang, Cheng-Bin & Zhen, Ye, 2025, Trachyphloeosoma rutiani sp. nov., a new species from Guangdong, China (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Entiminae), pp. e 142838 in Biodiversity Data Journal 13 on page e142838, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.13.e142838