Ellescus Dejean, 1821

Lewis, Jake H. & Anderson, Robert S., 2023, A review of EllESCUS (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in North America: new species and synonyms revealed through integrative taxonomy, The Canadian Entomologist (e 15) 155 (2023), pp. 1-27 : 6

Ellescus Dejean, 1821

Ellescus Dejean, 1821 ; Alonso-Zarazaga and Lyal 1999: 78; Anderson 2002: 738; Bousquet et al. 2013: 326; Caldara et al. 2014: 609; Alonso-Zarazaga et al. 2017: 196.

Alyca LeConte, 1876 .

Anisarctus Desbrochers des Loges, 1907.

Elleschus Schoenherr, 1838 (unjustified emendation); Hubbard et al. 1878: 621; Austin 1880: 49; Hamilton 1889: 156; Slosson 1897: 239; Blatchley and Leng 1916: 283; Hoffmann 1954: 1131; O’ Brien and Wibmer 1982: 116; Mattson et al. 1994: 10; Ciegler 2010: 71; Prena 2018: 382.

Sarapus Villa and Villa, 1833 .

Gender. Masculine.

Type species. Curculio scanicus ( Paykull, 1792) (by subsequent designation ( Schoenherr 1838: 321); see O’ Brien and Wibmer (1982) and Alonso-Zarazaga and Lyal (1999)).

Redescription. Length 1.9–3.0 mm. Small, elongate-oval, cuticle dark, brown, yellow, dull orange, and/or dull red. Cuticle covered in coarse, white, and/or yellow hair-like or broader scales. Rostrum stout, roughly equal in length to pronotum, and often covered in scales up to antennal insertion. Eyes small, circular to oval in shape, extending somewhat onto the rostrum medially. With or without prominent fovea between eyes. Antennae reddish-brown with small, oval-shaped club. Pronotum as wide as long, coarsely punctate, scaled, with or without prominent smooth, longitudinal midline. Scutellum usually covered with white scales, often appearing brighter than surrounding regions of elytra. Elytra oval-shaped in dorsal view, striae with large, deep punctures, each bearing a scale. Punctures of elytral striae distinctly larger than those of pronotal disk. Interstrial regions of elytra with 2–3 irregular rows of scales. In lateral view, elytra largely straight in first half to two-thirds of length, more curved in apical third. Ventrites flat, punctate, covered in scales. First 2–3 ventrites depressed medially in male, unmodified in female. Last ventrite, with glabrous, longitudinal carina or swelling at apex in male, unmodified in female. Legs with femora not toothed (except in E. scanicus , which occasionally bears a minute tooth). Tibiae straight, slightly shorter than femora. Preapical tarsomere bi-lobed. Tarsal claws bearing basal tooth. Aedeagus rounded, subquadrate, or pointed at apex. Internal sac with or without protruding V-shaped basal structures.