Melicius gracilis (Rosenhauer, 1856)

Friedman, Ariel-Leib-Leonid, 2023, A review of the saproxylic weevil subfamily Cossoninae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Israel, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 52 (6), pp. 75-96 : 91

Melicius gracilis (Rosenhauer, 1856)

( Figs 10, 19)

Material examined: Israel: locality unknown [intercepted?], 2.v.1999, PPIS, 11088, “ Eremotes porcatus ” det. Q. Argaman (4 exx.) .

Distribution: West Palaearctic. Europe: Portugal, Spain, France, Austria, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Russia; North Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Egypt) Omar 2012; HlavÁČ & Maughan 2013; Alonso-Zarazaga et al. 2023). New record for Israel.

Biology: This species lives and develops in dead wood of deciduous trees, and has been recorded from the following genera: Acer ( Aceraceae ), Fagus ( Fagaceae ), Fraxinus ( Oleaceae ), Juglans ( Juglandaceae ), Quercus (including Quercus suber L.(( Fagaceae ), Populus ( Salicaceae ), Ulmus ( Ulmaceae ) ( Folwaczny 1973).

Comments: This species may not be resident in Israel. The studied material originates from the collection of the Plant Protection and Interception Services, Ministry of Agriculture of Israel. The author is indebted to Dr Shahar Samra, Dr Eitan Recht and Dr Merav Hadar-Maor (PPIS) for their attempt to reveal the origin of this sample, but the search was fruitless. Therefore, the author is not sure if the weevils were collected in Israel or only intercepted on some kind of cargo.

One would expect instead to find in Israel Melicius cylindrus (Boheman, 1838) which is recorded from the East Mediterranean (e.g. Turkey, Syria and Lebanon); however, the existence of M. gracilis in Israel is not particularly surprising, as it is recorded from Egypt. According to Folwaczny (1973), Omar (2012) and Zabaluev (2023), M. gracilis is easily separated from M. cylindrus by the following characters. In M. gracilis pronotum as long as wide, rostrum slender, distinctly longer than head, tempus shorter than eye, head not constricted at tempora, procoxae sub-contiguous; whereas in M. cylindrus : pronotum longer than wide, rostrum thick, nearly as long as head, temple as long as eye, head slightly but distinctly constricted at temple, and procoxa widely separated.