Trachyphloeosoma ales Borovec & Anderson 2022, spec. n.
Creators: name: Borovec, Roman
name: Anderson, Robert
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Curculionidae
Trachyphloeosoma
Trachyphloeosoma ales

description: Trachyphloeosoma ales Borovec & Anderson spec. n.
(Figs 1, 4–8)
Type locality. Taiwan, Nantou Hsien, Meifeng.
Type material. Holotype: ♂, ‘ Taiwan, Nantou Hsien, Meifeng, 2130 m, 10.vii.93, A. Smetana (T146)’ (NMNS). Paratypes: 32 spec., the same data as holotype (BMNH, CMNC, NMNS, RBSC, USNM); 40 spec., ‘ Taiwan, Taichung Hsien, Anmashan, 2225 m, 11.v.1992, A. Smetana (T123)’ (BMNH, CMNC, NMNS, NMPC, RBSC, USNM); 6 spec., ‘ Taiwan, Nantou Hsien, Nenkaoshan trail, 2050-2150 m, 8.v.1992, A. Smetana (T120)’ (CMNC); 1 spec., ‘ Taiwan, Nantou Hsien, Nenkaoshan trail, Yuenhal Hut, 2350 m, 4.v.1992, A. Smetana (T112)’ (CMNC).
Description. Body length: holotype 2.56 mm, paratypes 2.19–2.98 mm. Body (Fig. 1) rusty brownish to dark brownish, antennae and tarsi paler, reddish brown. Entire body except for antennae and tarsi covered with encrustation not allowing examination of appressed scales. Each elytral interstria with one dense, conspicuous row of erect, piliform setae, as long as width of one interstria, distance between two setae subequal to their length. Pronotum with similar setae, only slightly shorter than setae on elytra, densely irregularly scattered. Head with rostrum with shorter erect setae. Antennal scapes, femora and tibiae with slender, moderately long, erect piliform setae.
Rostrum (Figs 4, 5) short and wide, 1.29–1.38 × as wide as long, widest at base, slightly tapering anteriad with straight sides, at base 1.04–1.08 × as wide as at apex; in lateral view regularly vaulted. Epifrons tapering anteriad with distinctly concave sides, with distinct, moderately wide longitudinal median furrow along entire length, reaching to posterior margin of level of eyes. Frons moderately long, glabrous, smooth, transversly depressed. Epistome small, arched. Antennal sockets in dorsal view visible as wide furrows throughout entire length; in lateral view short, conspicuously enlarged posteriad, with dorsal margin directed above eye, ventral margin curved, directed downwards but not reaching ventral margin of eye. Eyes mid-sized, in dorsal view only slightly prominent from outline of head; in lateral view short-oval, placed at middle of head height. Head finely, indistinctly striate behind eyes.
Antennal scapes 1.2–1.3 × as long as funicle, slender, distinctly curved at midlength, slightly evenly enlarged apicad, here 0.6 × as wide as club. Funicle 7-segmented; segment 1 1.7–1.8 × as long as wide and 1.3–1.4 × as long as segment 2, segment 2 1.6–1.7 × as long as wide; segments 3–5 isodiametric; segment 6 1.1 × as wide as long; segment 7 1.3–1.4 × as wide as long; clubs 1.5–1.6 × as long as wide.
Pronotum (Fig. 1) 1.07–1.11 × as wide as long, widest at midlength, with distinctly rounded sides, constricted behind anterior margin; anterior margin distinctly narrower than posterior one. Disc roughly, densely irregularly punctured with distinct, moderately wide longitudinal median furrow along entire length, with ill-defined margins. Pronotum in lateral view regularly distinctly domed; anterior margin directed strongly back beneath and towards coxae.
Scutellum not visible.
Elytra (Fig. 1) oval, 1.39–1.47 × as long as wide, widest at midlength, sides regularly rounded. Striae densely coarsely punctured, interstriae as wide as third of puncture diameter. Interstriae somewhat smooth. Elytra in lateral view regularly vaulted.
Femora edentate. Protibiae somewhat slender, 6.18–6.32 × as long as wide at midlength, distinctly curved inside in apical one quarter to one fifth and distinctly doubly sinuate along inner edge, apically subtruncate with fringe of dense, short, fine, yellowish setae, with long brown mucro. Tarsi short with segment 2 1.5–1.6 × as wide as long, segment 3 1.4–1.5 × as wide as long and 1.5–1.6 × as wide as segment 2; onychium 0.6–0.7 × as long as segment 3; claws long, divaricate.
Abdominal ventrites 1.14–1.21 × as long as wide, densely roughly punctate, space between punctures shorter than their diameter; ventrites 1 and 2 at middle subequal in length; ventrites 3 and 4 very short, subequal in length, combined distinctly shorter than ventrite 2; suture between ventrites 1 and 2 sinuose, the others straight. Metaventral process about as wide as transverse diameter of metacoxa.
Male genitalia. Penis (Fig. 6) short and wide, 1.8 × as long as wide, subparallel-sided, apically broadly rounded; in lateral view moderately wide, with ventral margin straight, dorsal margin slightly rounded, apical part distinctly curved inside, evenly pointed. Temones twice as long as body of penis. Sternite IX with spiculum gastrale moderately long, anteriorly distinctly narrowed, slender, curved, posteriorly with basal arms slender, moderately long, V-shaped divergent.
Female genitalia. Spermatheca (Fig. 7) well sclerotised, dark brown with corpus blackish, U-shaped, with long and slender cornu; ramus and collum not developed; corpus distinctly elongate with weakly rounded sides, then slightly constricted and apical part regularly rounded. Sternite VIII (Fig. 8) with long, slender apodeme, Y-shaped terminating in basal portion of plate; plate oval, without any fenestra. Gonocoxites slender and long, in apical part tube-shaped, in basal part slightly enlarged, with slender apical styli bearing setae.
Etymology. The species is named after its collector, a good friend of the authors, Dr. Aleš Smetana (1931– 2021), eminent entomologist specializing in Staphylinidae, born in the Czech Republic, but living and working the majority of his life in Ottawa, Canada, at the Canadian National Collection of Insects. The specific name is a noun in apposition.
Bionomy. Type material was sifted from forest litter, together with Myosides morimotoi Borovec, 2014.
Differential diagnosis. Trachyphloeosoma ales is unique and easily distinguishable from all other species of the genus by the following set of characters: pronotum with wide longitudinal median furrow along entire length (vs. disc regularly domed in all other species); abdominal ventrites densely punctate, space between punctures shorter than diameter of one puncture (vs. ventrites sparsely punctate, with space between punctures distinctly longer than diameter of one puncture); penis apically broadly rounded (Fig. 6) (vs. penis apically weakly or distinctly pointed (Figs 19, 24)); spermatheca well-sclerotised, blackish brown, lacking ramus and collum, with corpus elongate, in apical part constricted and then regularly rounded (Fig. 7) (vs. weakly sclerotised, yellow, with developed ramus and collum (Figs 20, 25) and if not, then corpus apically tapering (Figs 11, 15)).
Trachyphloeosoma ales has a 7-segmented antennal funicle, all elytral interstriae with a row of erect setae as long as the setae on the pronotum, dorsal margin of scrobes directed above the eye and rostrum short and wide, evenly tapering apicad with straight sides similar to T. advena Zimmerman, 1956 (and also the here described T. david). In the last key of that genus (Borovec 2021) T. ales thus belongs to the point 10. In addition to these differences, T. ales is distinguished from the parthenogenetic species T. advena and T. david by an amphigonic way of reproduction and by the female sternite VIII with plate lacking fenestra, and from T. david also by the long, slender, piliform elytral setae.
description: Published as part of Borovec, Roman & Anderson, Robert, 2022, Three new species of Trachyphloeosoma Wollaston (Coleoptera: Curculionidae Entiminae) from southeast Asia with the first record of the tribe Trachyphloeini from the Philippines, pp. 93-100 in Zootaxa 5182 (1) on pages 94-96, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5182.1.7, http://zenodo.org/record/7042897