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

description: Dodomeira saccoi Bellò & Baviera sp. n.
(Figures 39, 39a, 39b, 39c, 39d, 39e, 39f, 44h, 98, 137)
Type locality. Tunisia, Nefza, Tebaba (Fig. 178).
Diagnosis. A medium-sized Dodomeira (3.80 mm) belonging to the saccoi group with slender body (length/ width ratio: 1.67) and cylindrical elytra shape. It is easily recognisable by elytra without humeri, elytral declivity elongate, and protibia without mucro on inner apical angle.
Type series. Holotype female with the following labels: [transparent label] genitalia in DHMF // [white, printed] ♀ // [white, handwritten]" Tunisia, Nefza dint.[orni], Tebaba, 5 X.1991, Bellò” // [white, printed]"lettiera di Olea e. sativa ” // [green, printed] “Collezione Cesare Bellò” // [red, handwritten] “ Dodomeira saccoi sp. n., Holotype, det. Bellò 2016 ” (CBE).
Holotype. Female. Total length: 3.80 mm. Slender body with sub-cylindrical elytra. Dorsal vestiture with brownish not imbricated scales with metallic sheen.
Rostrum covered by brownish scales, transverse (length/width ratio 0.69), conical with convergent sides towards the apex. Pterygia slightly protruding from the rostrum. Epistome present with inconspicuous plate. Mesorostrum slightly concave, anteriorly with twelve thin, curved, short and semi-erect setae. Vertex wide and convex (vertex width / mesorostrum width: ratio 1.91) with several, elongate, widened, raised setae. Interocular space without fovea.
Lateral, small, convex eyes protruding from outline of head. Antenna quite robust and short with recumbent, golden, widened setae. Antenna with ratio 0.75 (scape length: 0.75 mm, funicle length: 1.00 mm). Scape clubbed, slightly more robust than funicle, curved at the middle and progressively thickening towards apex. Funicle segments including club, relative lengths as follows: 10.4.3.3.3.3.3.15; first five segments with widened setae silvery; segments 4–7 pearl-shaped. Club at least twice wider than funicle, fusiform, with suture between first and second segment visible.
Pronotum clothed with brownish scales, transverse (length: 0.75 mm, width: 0.95 mm, ratio: 0.79), subconical, sinuate, with maximum width at the basal third, less wide at base of its anterior margin, with elongate, clavate, golden-silvery raised setae. Punctation usually covered by scales. Scutellum not visible.
Elytra (length: 2.50 mm, width: 1.50 mm, ratio: 1.67), cylindrical, covered by brownish not imbricated scales, with flat suture, wider at basal third. Elytral declivity elongate with raised (30°–45°) clavate, elongate setae. Punctation of striae, shallow, rather catenulate and impressed. Interstriae flat, with widened-clavate, elongate, golden, recumbent-raised setae. Humeri null.
Legs short and robust clothed by brownish scales and rather short, widened golden setae. Femora little clubbed. Protibia with one/two acute spines on inner edge, without 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. 98), sternite VIII (Fig. 137). Genitalia were examined in Holotype.
Distribution. See Fig. 138. Italian endemic. Known only from Tebaba, Nefza, Tunisia.
Etymology. Named after Sacco (Francesco), Apionidae specialist, our collegue, friend, and author of the photos so well illustrate this work in appreciation of his extraordinary collaboration.
Ecology and Phenology. Collected Dodomeira saccoi during the months of October sifting the leaf-litter in an olive grove on clay soil. Collections in wintry months gave negative results suggesting that the Dodomeira saccoi are absent during this time.
Main soil type. Unknown
Reproduction. Probably parthenogenetic. Species known from one female.
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 110-133, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4334.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1009865