Symmorphocerus consequens Kleine, 1926

Orbach, Eylon, Belbas, Abdul-Qadir Salih Khidhir & A., Abstract, 2023, The first records of Amorphocephala coronata (Germar, 1817) and Amorphocephala piochardi (Bedel, 1878) (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea: Brentidae) in Iraq, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 52 (17), pp. 35-39 : 37-38

Symmorphocerus consequens Kleine, 1926 ( Fig. 4)

Geographically , all these species are recorded from the highlands of the northern and northeastern parts of Iraq ( Fig. 5), with an average altitude of about 2400 m. Symmorphocerus beloni is the only brentid species known also from the lower elevation, about 220 m, in the area of Mosul.

The first author studied the male lectotype of Symmorphocerus beloni deposited in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France). A very good photograph of the paralectotype male of Symmorphocerus consequens from the Natural History Museum (London, UK), shows a striking similarity between the two species. Moreover, among the 11 known Symmorphocerus species, only S. beloni , S. consequens and S. minutus Power, 1879 bear a unique structure projecting under the rostrum ( Fig. 4). In the first two, this structure looks identical, but its form is slightly different in S. minutus , in addition to other morphological characters that can easily separate this species from S. beloni and S. consequens : base of head slightly rounded vs. base straight with external edges strongly diverging outwards; base of head ventrally with strong punctuation vs. base of head ventrally smooth; prothorax and elytra glabrous vs. prothorax and elytra with small erect hairs; abdominal plate shiny and glabrous, evenly punctuated vs. abdominal plate matt medially, with very small nearly evanescent punctuation and very short hairs; tegmen and parameroid lobes narrow and long vs. tegmen and parameroid lobes shorter and wide (in S. beloni , genitalia of S. consequens not studied). The original descriptions of S. beloni and S. consequens do not allow differentiating them. Only after future study of the type material of Symmorphocerus consequens in the Natural History Museum it will be clear whether this two species should be synonymized under S. beloni , or the two taxa should remain valid.

We find it useful to supply a key to the genera of the Iraqi Brentidae and to the species of Amorphocephala Damoiseau, 1966 , in order to assist future research of the Brentidae of this country.