Thamiocolus? comptus Colonnelli, 1997

Korotyaev, Boris A. & Friedman, Ariel-Leib-Leonid, 2020, A review of the weevil genus Thamiocolus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Conoderinae: Ceutorhynchitae: Ceutorhynchini) from Israel, with notes on some adaptive features of Ceutorhynchini and a new synonymy, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 50 (2), pp. 103-131 : 112-115

Thamiocolus? comptus Colonnelli, 1997

( Figs 8, 19)

Description: Female. Rostrum as long as pronotum, rather smoothly moderately bent in basal part and almost straight somewhat distal to antennal insertions; subcylindrical, in lateral view noticeably and almost evenly tapering from base toward antennal insertions and more strongly tapering toward apex distal to latter. In dorsal view, rostrum at base 1.45× as wide as at apex and 0.61× as wide as fore femur, scarcely narrowing toward antennal insertion, then much more strongly narrowing toward apex, with sides slightly concave. Dorsal surface moderately and evenly convex in cross-section, almost matt, very densely and finely punctate, lacking any longitudinal carinae. Distal part of rostrum linearly raised along midline half-way to apex, then more shining, with punctures thinned. Antennae inserted at 0.44 rostrum length from apex. Scape with apical third moderately swollen and bent. Funicle short; 1 st segment twice as long as wide, 2 nd segment slightly shorter than, and half as wide as 1 st, 3 rd segment almost twice as long as wide, 4 th slightly shorter, 5 th segment slightly longer than wide, 6 th segment weakly, 7 th moderately transverse, both noticeably wider than 5 th segment. Pubescence of funicle fine, moderately long, semi-erect, moderately raised. Club ovate, not blunted apically, compact, with margins between segments not step-like. Eyes medium-sized, rounded triangular, moderately convex. Frons flat; frons and vertex matt, densely punctate.

Pronotum 1.30× as wide as long, rather strongly rounded at sides, broadest in very beginning of middle third; base moderately obtuse angularly projecting posteriorly in middle; apical constriction separating very short ring (‘collar’), latter weakly raised and ending in glabrous margination, moderately emarginate medially (at about 1.5× width of rostrum at base). Disc moderately convex, more strongly so in basal half; almost matt, with dense, regular, rather fine punctures. No trace of median sulcus or lateral tubercles present; prescutellar fovea small, narrow, deepening posteriorly.

Scutellum narrow, keel-shaped. Apices of mesepimera weakly convex, clearly visible from above.

Elytra 1.13× as long as wide, with moderately prominent widely rounded shoulders, widest immediately behind them (where 8 th stria becomes visible dorsally), with sides weakly and slightly concavely converging toward slightly behind mid-length, then more strongly rectilinearly converging toward well-defined, obtuse-angular preapical prominences. Disc moderately and almost evenly convex except for short shallow depression along suture immediately behind scutellum and faint oblique depressions posteromedially to humeri. Striae rather narrow and moderately deep, their sides slightly notched by rounded punctures separated by about own diameters. Intervals flat, about twice (or, in some places, slightly more) as wide as striae, weakly shining, with moderately dense medium-sized, shallow punctures.

Legs short. Femora wide, strongly roundly widened behind mid-length, hind femur widest, 2.8× as long as wide. Middle and hind femora with faint angulation in widest place lacking bunch of raised white scales; area posteroventral to angulation noticeably depressed, with a few white scales. Fore tibia moderately outcurved apically, corbel occupies nearly ⅓ of its outer margin and ending with a weak prominence, rather shallowly emarginate, bearing 7 moderately long wide spines separated in middle part of corbel by own widths. Corbel of hind tibia more deeply emarginate, ending with large prominence, and occupying slightly less than ⅓ of outer margin of tibia. Tarsi narrow and short; 1 st segment of fore tarsus almost twice, 2 nd 1.3× as long as wide, 3 rd segment as long and 1.7× as wide as 2 nd, its lobes rounded at outer side; claw-segment by 0.75 of own length extending over lobes of 3 rd segment, moderately widening from base toward apex. Claws long and rather narrow, with long separated, weakly incurved apically appendages nearly reaching their apices. Tarsi dorsally lacking fine erect setae in addition to sparse semi-erect, moderately long, white setiform scales.

Anal ventrite in medial third flat, with apical margin weakly narrowly attenuate medially. Pygidium weakly transverse (1.3× as wide as long), with apical half gently bent dorsally, narrowly rounded apically, densely and rather coarsely rugosely punctate, matt.

Body black; apex of antennal scape, funicle, very base of tibiae, and tarsi dark brown. Basal part of rostrum and head capsule densely clothed with recumbent narrow, sublinear, grey scales; apical part almost bare, with sparse short inconspicuous recumbent setae, with no erect hairs on sides. Pronotum evenly covered with recumbent narrow grey scales spaced by usually more than their width, prescutellar fovea with a few short wider white scales at very base. Sides of prothorax with broad-lanceolate (in anterior part) and oval (in posterior part) white scales. Intervals of elytra mostly with 2–4 (mostly 3) rows of narrow (ca. 4× as long as wide) scales with truncate apex. Striae bare. Sides of meso-, metathorax and 1 st –4 th abdominal ventrites with dense broad-oval white scales, medial part of thorax and basal two ventrites with sparser narrow scales. Femora and tibiae uniformly, moderately densely clothed with narrow parallel-sided grey scales.Anal ventrite in medial third with a spot of broad-lanceolate white scales narrowing apically, sides of ventrite with very narrow acuminate scales. Pygidium with long semi-erect, very narrow acuminate white scales and hairs.

Body length 3.3, width 1.9 mm.

Material examined: Syria: 1♀ “ Latakia, 30 km O: Saladin Burg , 410 m, 02.V.2002, Herbert Schmid, Thamiocolus sp. cf. comptus Colonn., Behne det. 2003” ( ZIN, donated by the late W. Suppantschitsch, Vienna) .

Remarks: The only female is very similar to Th. comptus Colonnelli from southern Turkey but differs in the gently curved, gradually and more strongly narrowing apically rostrum not flattened dorsally, longer antennal funicle (3 rd segment in Th. comptus is as long as wide, 4 th and 5 th not longer than wide), more angular preapical prominences of the elytra, and less outcurved apically fore tibia with a less rounded inner margin.