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

description: Dodomeira himerensis (Bellò & Baviera), 2011, comb. n.
(Figures 17, 17a, 17b, 17c, 17d, 17e, 17f, 17 ’, 17’a, 17’b, 17’c, 17’d, 17’e, 17’f, 42b, 46, 51, 56, 76, 115)
Pseudomeira himerensis: Bellò & Baviera, 2011: 35 –68; Pierotti, 2013b: 352; Abbazzi & Zinetti, 2013: 91.
Type locality. Sicily, Palermo, Termini Imerese (Fig. 158).
Diagnosis. A small or medium-sized Dodomeira (2.80–3.90 mm) belonging to the exigua group with more stubby body and oval but rather elongate elytra. Within the species group, it is easily recognisable by the elytra with short, spatulate, flattened setae (0°–15°). Apex of penis sharp. Sizes: pronotum (length: 0.65–0.85 mm, width: 0.75–1.00 mm, ratio 0.85–0.93), elytra (length: 1.80–2.50 mm, width: 1.20–1.60 mm, ratio 1.46–1.56).
Material examined. Holotype with the following labels: [transparent label with genitalia in DHMF] // [white, printed] ♂ // [white, printed] “Sicilia, Palermo, Termini Imerese, 15.III.08 ” // [white, printed] “al vaglio lettiera Olea e. sativa, legg. Bellò & Chemello, Baviera & Rando // [green, printed] “coll. Cesare Bellò” // [red, partly printed] “ Pseudomeira himerensis sp. n., Holotypus, det. Bellò 2010” // [white, printed] “ Dodomeira himerensis (Bellò & Baviera, 2011), det. Bellò 2016 ” (CBE). Paratypes: 4 males and 87 females (CBA, CBE, ECO, GOS, HPI, LFO, MTE, MTSN).
Holotype redescription. Male Figs. 17, 17a. Total length: 3.10 mm. Stubby body. Elytra oval-elongate. Dorsal vestiture with imbricate, silvery-brown scales with metallic sheen.
Rostrum covered by silvery-brown scales, transverse (length/width ratio 0.80), sub-parallel to the sides. Pterygia visible. Epistome inconspicuous and concave. Mesorostrum concave, anteriorly with ten thin, curved, semi-erect setae. Vertex wide and convex (vertex width / mesorostrum width: ratio 1.90) with several, elongate, clavate/spatulate, recumbent setae. Interocular space with inconspicuous fovea.
Lateral, large, convex eyes protruding from outline of head. Antenna little robust and rather elongate with recumbent, golden/silvery, widened setae. Antenna with ratio 0.67 (scape length: 0.60 mm, funicle length: 0.90 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: 9.5.4.3.3.3.3.16; all segments with widened setae; segments 3–7 pearl-shaped. Club at least twice wider than funicle, elongate, fusiform with suture between first and second segment visible.
Pronotum clothed with silvery-brown scales, quite sub-square (length: 0.75 mm, width: 0.80 mm, ratio: 0.93), slightly sub-conical, rounded at the sides, wider in the middle, with short, quite spatulate, silvery flattened setae. Punctation usually covered by scales. Scutellum inconspicuous. Humeri short and straight.
Elytra (length: 1.90 mm, width: 1.30 mm, ratio: 1.46) slight vaulted dorsally, sub-oval, clothed with dense silvery-brown scales here and there paler, rounded on sides, wider at the middle, flat suture. Elytral declivity with spatulate and flattened setae (0°–15°). Punctation of striae, shallow, rather catenulate and impressed. Interstriae with spatulate, short, silvery, flattened setae.
Legs short and robust clothed by silvery-brown scales and with short, clavate silvery setae. Femora little clubbed. Protibia with one-two 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.
Male genitalia. See Figures: dorsal shape aedeagus (Fig. 46), internal sac (Fig. 51), sternite IX (Fig. 56), apex of penis (Fig. 17f). Genitalia were examined in nineteen specimens.
Distribution. See Fig. 140. Italian endemic. Known from the type locality and overlying limestone mountains (Pizzo Cane, Pizzo Trigna) at 100–600 meters.
Ecology and Phenology. Collected by Berlese and Winkler extractors from soil obtained sifting the leaf litter on moist clay soil, of an olive grove, at 50–100 meters.
Have been found they from late winter to early spring, and were absent when the soil became dry.
Main soil type. Chromic-Luvisol (European Soil Data Centre; Panagos et al. 2012).
Reproduction. Amphigonic. It is noteworthy that only have been found four males out of 88 specimens. Further research is needed to rule out if we are looking at two species: one amphigonic and one parthenogenetic.
Chorological relationships. Sympatric with an unidentified species of Dolichomeira Solari, 1955, members of which usually appear in winter.
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 57-60, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4334.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1009865