Dodomeira elima Bello
Creators: name: Baviera, Cosimo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Curculionidae
Dodomeira
Dodomeira elima

description: Dodomeira elima Bellò & Baviera sp. n.
(Figures 29, 29a, 29b, 29c, 29d, 29e, 29f, 43f, 88, 127)
Type locality. Sicily, Trapani, Custonaci, Purgatorio (Fig. 169).
Diagnosis. A small-sized Dodomeira (3.45–3.80 mm) belonging to the pfisteri group with slender body (length/width ratio: 1.72–1.77) and quite cylindrical elytra shape. Within the species group, it is recognisable by elongate and parallel elytra, elytral declivity with raised (30°–45°) clavate, elongate setae, rostrum with divergent sides towards the apex, and protibia with two/three acute spines on inner edge. Sizes: pronotum (length: 0.80–0.85 mm, width: 0.80–0.90 mm, ratio 0.95–1.00), elytra (length: 2.30–2.50 mm, width: 1.30–1.45 mm, ratio 1.72–1.77).
Type series. Holotype female with the following labels: [transparent label] genitalia in DHMF // [white, printed] ♀ // [white, printed] “I, Sic. [ilia], TP [Trapani], Custonaci, loc.[alità] Purgatorio, 260m, vaglio Olea, 29.I.2011 ” // [white, printed] “ N 38°04.503’ E 012°44.598’, legg. Bellò & Chemello” // [white, printed]" TPPU 1.1” // [green, printed] “Collezione Cesare Bellò” // [red, printed] “ Dodomeira elima sp. n., Holotype, det. Bellò 2016 ” (CBE).
Paratypes. 5 females: “I, Sic. [ilia], TP [Trapani], Custonaci, loc.[alità] Purgatorio, 260m, vaglio Olea, N 38°04.503’ E 012°44.598’, 29.I.2011, legg. Bellò & Chemello” (CBE); 5 females: “I, Sicilia, TP [Trapani], Custonaci, loc.[alità] Purgatorio, 273m, vaglio Olea, N 38°04.30’ 2 E 012°44.55’ 5, 5. IV.2011, legg. Bellò & Baviera ” (CBE, CBA, ECO, GOS). Types are eleven (all females).
Other material. 1 female (only elytra): “I, Sicilia, Erice, M. [onte] S.[an] Giuliano, Piano Guastella, 200 m., vaglio olea, 09.III.2009, legg. Baviera C. & Bellò C.” (CBE); 1 female: “ Sicilia, Erice, TP [Trapani], 10.XII. [19]93, bosco misto, leg. Sabella ” (CBE); 2 females: “ Italia, Sicilia, TP[Trapani], Erice, Piano Guastella, 220 m., vaglio Olea, 38°02.634’N 12°33.808’E, 28.XI.2015, legg. Baviera C. & Bellò C.” (CBE); 1 female “ Sicilia, Santa Ninfa, 16. I. 1913, A. Dodero ” (MSNG).
Other material (five females) considered provisionally as belonging to this species are five specimens. Specimens other material differ from paratypes for recumbent setae.
Holotype. Female. Slender body with elytra elongate-cylindrical. Total length: 3.45 mm. Dorsal vestiture with very imbricate and uniformely golden-brown scales with metallic sheen.
Rostrum covered by golden-brown scales, transverse (length/width ratio 0.72) with divergent sides towards the apex. Pterygia barely protruding from the rostrum. Epistome absent. Mesorostrum concave, anteriorly with twelve thin, curved, short and semi-erect setae. Vertex not wide but very convex (vertex width / mesorostrum width: ratio 1.75) with several, elongate, clavate, raised-semierect setae. Interocular space without fovea.
Lateral, very large, convex eyes protruding from outline of head. Antenna robust and short with recumbent, golden-silvery, widened setae. Antenna with ratio 0.72 (scape length: 0.65 mm, funicle length: 0.90 mm). Scape clubbed, slightly more robust than funicle, curved at the basal third and progressively thickening towards apex. Funicle segments including club, relative lengths as follows: 9.5.4.3.3.3.3.13; first five segments with widened setae silvery; and segments 4–7 pearl-shaped. Club at least twice wider than funicle, short, fusiform with suture between first and second segment visible.
Pronotum clothed with golden-brown scales, sub-square (length: 0.80 mm, width: 0.80 mm, ratio: 1.00), subconical, sinuate, with maximum width in the middle, less wide at base of its anterior margin, with short, clavate, golden raised setae. Punctation usually covered by scales. Scutellum inconspicuous.
Elytra (length: 2.30 mm, width: 1.30 mm, ratio: 1.77) slightly vaulted dorsally, cylindrical, covered by goldenbrown scales, with flat suture, wider at the middle. Elytral declivity with clavate, elongate, raised setae (30°–45°). Punctation of striae, shallow, rather catenulate and impressed. Interstriae flat, with spatulate-clavate, short, golden, flattened setae. Humeri short and rounded.
Legs short and robust clothed by golden-brown scales and rather short, widened golden setae. Femora little clubbed. Protibia with two/three acute spines on inner edge, with evident mucro on inner apical angle. Protibia quite sinuous on inner edge, metatibia and mesotibia straight in side view.
Tarsal segment 1 short, conical; segment 2 short and transverse; segment 3 shallowly bilobed; all segments with thin golden setae. Onychium curved, robust and short. Claws very short and fused at base.
Female genitalia. See Figures: spermatheca (Fig. 88), sternite VIII (Fig. 127). Genitalia were examined in three.
Paratype variability. All paratypes are females and no were observed significant differences.
Distribution. See Fig. 141. Italian endemic. Known near type locality Custonaci and Erice.
Etymology. The species take its name from the ancient people of Elymi who inhabited the region before and during the Greek and Roman domination of Sicily.
Ecology and Phenology. Collected paratypes by Berlese and Winkler extractors from soil obtained sifting the leaf litter on calcareous soil, of a Eucaliptus grove in January and April, at 0–300 meters.
Collected “ other material ” by Berlese and Winkler extractors from soil obtained sifting the leaf litter on clay soil, of an olive grove in winter-spring, at 200–220 meters. Investigation in the summer months gave negative results suggesting that D. elima are absent during this time.
Main soil type. Chromic-Luvisol (European Soil Data Centre; Panagos et al. 2012).
Reproduction. Probably parthenogenetic. Species known from eighteen females (eleven paratypes, five not paratypes).
description: Published as part of Baviera, Cosimo, 2017, A taxonomic monograph of the genus Dodomeira Bellò & Baviera, a new genus of Peritelini from Sicily (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), pp. 1-138 in Zootaxa 4334 (1) on pages 87-89, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4334.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1009865