Amorphocephala coronata ( Germar, 1817 )

Orbach, Eylon, 2020, The Brentidae of Israel (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea), Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 50 (2), pp. 53-68 : 57-58

Amorphocephala coronata ( Germar, 1817)

( Figs 3, 4)

Brentus coronatus Germar, 1817: 247 .

Brentus italicus GuÉrin-MÉneville, [1833]: pl. 36, [1844]: 139 (syn.).

Arrhenodes coronatus : Gyllenhal 1833: 330.

Amorphocephalus coronatus : Gyllenhal 1840: 487; Bytinski-Salz & Sterlicht 1967: 135.

Amorphocephala coronata : Damoiseau 1966: 307; Schedl 1975 a: 31; Sforzi & Bartolozzi 2004: 288; Sforzi 2011: 143; Alonso-Zarazaga et al. 2017: 95.

Distribution: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy (incl. Sardinia and Sicily), Iran, Israel (?), Lebanon, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Turkey.

Biology: Myrmecophilous.

Comments: Amorphocephala coronata was recorded for the first time from Israel by Bytinski-Salz and Sternlicht (1967). Schedl (1975 a) mentioned A. coronata as occurring in Israel, and all subsequent published records of this species in Israel were most likely based on the above citations.

I have found no representatives of this species collected in Israel in any collection in Israeli or European institutions, and it is possible that records of A. coronata from Israel were based on misidentifications.

However, we cannot exclude this species from the checklist, until more material collected in Israel in the past is recovered. Moreover, reporting of A. coronata in Lebanon for the first time recently ( Bartolozzi et al. 2012) widens its distribution, and encounter of this species in Israel is possible in future.

Therefore, Amorphocepala coronata is kept—although with some doubts—in the list of Brentidae occurring in Israel for the time being.