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

description: Dodomeira nobilis Bellò & Baviera sp. n.
(Figures 35, 35a, 35b, 35c, 35d, 35e, 35f, 44d, 94, 133)
Type locality. Sicily, Palermo, Cinisi, Montagna Longa (Fig. 174).
Diagnosis. A small-sized Dodomeira (3.30–3.40 mm) belonging to the pfisteri group with quite slender body (length/width ratio: 1.68–1.68) and quite sub-cylindrical elytra shape. Within the species group, it is recognisable by robust body (antennae, legs) with many raised setae (30°–45°), scape as robust as funicle, elytra not parallel, and protibia with three acute spines on inner edge. Sizes: pronotum (length: 0.70–0.75 mm, width: 0.75–0.80 mm, ratio 0.93–0.94), elytra (length: 2.00– 2.18 mm, width: 1.20–1.30mm, ratio 1.68–1.68).
Type series. Holotype female with the following labels: [transparent label] genitalia in DHMF // [white, printed] ♀ // [white, printed] “ Collezione Cesare Bellò ” “I, Sicilia, PA[Palermo], Cinisi, Montagna Longa, Piano Margi, 650 m. ” // [white, printed] " N 38°07.900’ E 13°08.442’, vaglio, 4.IV. [20]’11, legg. Bellò & Baviera ” // [green, printed] “ Collezione Cesare Bellò ” // [red, printed] “ Dodomeira nobilis sp. n., Holotype, det. Bellò 2016 ” (CBE).
Paratype. 1 female: “I, Sicilia, PA[Palermo], Cinisi, Montagna Longa, Piano Margi, 650 m., N 38°07.900’ E 13°08.442’, vaglio, 4. IV. [20]’11, legg. Bellò & Baviera ” (CBA). Types are two (all females).
Other material. 1 female: “I, Sicilia, PA [Palermo], 6 Km SW Cinisi, Montagna Longa, 647 m, 38°07.10’’N 13°08.31’’E, 9.10.2006, Kalk: Quercus ilex, leg. Stuben (1a)” (HPI).
Other material considered provisionally as belonging to this species differs for size (length/width ratio: 1.700), body less robust and setae quite spatulate.
Holotype. Female. Total length: 3.40 mm .. Quite slender body with elytra elongate and sub-cylindrical elytra not parallel. Dorsal vestiture with very imbricate, silvery-brown scales with metallic sheen.
Rostrum covered by silvery-brown scales, transverse (length/width ratio 0.73), conical but with divergent sides towards the apex. Pterygia barely protruding from the rostrum. Epistome absent. Mesorostrum slightly concave, anteriorly with twelve thin, short, curved, semi-erect setae. Vertex wide and convex (vertex width / mesorostrum width: ratio 1.84) with several, elongate, widened-clavate, raised setae. Interocular space without visible fovea.
Lateral, large, slightly convex eyes barely protruding from outline of head. Antenna robust and short with recumbent, golden-silvery, widened setae. Antenna with ratio 0.81 (scape length: 0.65 mm, funicle length: 0.80 mm). Scape as robust as funicle, clubbed, short, curved at the basal third and progressively thickening towards apex. Funicle segments including club, relative lengths as follows: 9.4.3.3.3.3.3.14; first five segments with widened setae silvery; segments 4–7 pearl-shaped. Club at least twice wider than funicle, short, compact, fusiform with suture between first and second segment visible.
Pronotum clothed with silvery-brown scales, almost sub-square (length: 0.75 mm, width: 0.80 mm, ratio: 0.94), rounded on its sinuate sides, with maximum width in the middle, less wide at base of its anterior margin, with short, widened-clavate, golden recumbent setae. Punctation usually covered by scales. Scutellum inconspicuous.
Elytra (length: 2.18 mm, width: 1.30 mm, ratio: 1.68) vaulted dorsally, sub-cylindrical, not parallel, covered by golden-brown scales, with flat suture, wider at the middle. Elytral declivity with clavate-spatulate, raised setae (30°–45°). Punctation of striae, shallow, rather catenulate and impressed. Interstriae flat, with clavate, elongate, golden, raised setae. Humeri short and very rounded.
Legs very short and robust clothed by golden-brown scales and with short, widened golden setae. Femora clubbed. Protibia with three acute spines on inner edge, with little 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 slightly elongate.
Female genitalia. See Figures: spermatheca (Fig. 94), sternite VIII (Fig. 133). Genitalia were examined in two specimens.
Paratype variability. All paratypes are females and differs only in size.
Distribution. See Fig. 141. Italian endemic. Known from Montagna Longa near type locality Cinisi.
Etymology. Named from Latin word nobilis (noble), to remenber the “Baroness of Carini” popular and tragic noblewoman of local history.
Ecology and Phenology. Collected D. nobilis by Berlese and Winkler extractors from soil obtained sifting the leaf litter of Asphodelus sp., Euphorbia sp, etc. on calcareous soil, in a slope garrigue in April and October, at 600– 750 meters.
Main soil type. Chromic-Luvisol (European Soil Data Centre; Panagos et al. 2012).
Reproduction. Probably parthenogenetic. Species known from three females.
Chorological relationships. Sympatric with Dolichomeira sp.
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 100-102, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4334.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1009865