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Auletobius anceps
The verdict is in: Auletobius anceps.
Some characters/measurements of this beetle:
- Body length (without rostrum) 2,25mm
- Rostrum length ~0.75mm, giving a 0.33 ratio to body length
- The last (claw bearing) tarsal segment is about the same length as the first (not clearly longer as in convexifrons)
- The shape of the antenna segments is up for discussion still (the key and fig.7 in Morris (2004) do not fit my beetle well, but the official redescription of the species (in the same paper) does fit like a glove.
The relative length of the rostrum is "spot on" for maderensis and a bit iffy-inbetween the published ratios for male and female anceps, but my measurements may not be too precise and the overall body length is too small for maderensis.
Anyway, I've contacted Dr. Morris about all this and he very kindly spent some of his valuable time in helping me out, concluding that he is confident we are looking at Auletobius anceps here.
Auletobius anceps is a relatively small Weevil (2-2.7mm, without the rostrum) in the family Rhynchitidae, endemic to some of the Canary Islands.
comments (10)
You mean to say Auletobius? Posted 5 years ago
Following the key, I find Auletobius maderensis ; you can check to make a stand Posted 5 years ago
I've tried writing to Dr. Mike Morris (the author of the article) - hope the mail sill arrives at the old address ...
P.S. there is also a new species described from La Gomera: Auletobius (Canarauletes) garajonay Stüben, 2015 that I have yet to find a PDF for.
STÜBEN, P.E. (2015) Auletobius (Canarauletes) garajonay sp.n. from La Gomera (Canary Islands) (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea: Rhynchitidae). - SNUDEBILLER - Studies on taxonomy, biology and ecology of Curculionoidea, vol.16.
Posted 5 years ago, modified 5 years ago
It's pity that the access to dedicated papers is not always for free...
However, in Fauna Europea (https://fauna-eu.org/cdm_dataportal/taxon/20ffb75e-bddf-4309-81f7-98009f5e7cd6), they say that A. mederensis can be found from the Canary Islands; But it looks that this site cannot always be trusted. Posted 5 years ago
https://www.biodiversidadcanarias.es/biota/especies?pagina=1&searchSpeciesTabs=fastSearchTab&fastSearch=Auletobius
A friend sent me the paper by Stüben and from that I think I can disregard the new species and I'm more or less back at anceps, but I'll wait and see if Dr. Morris will kindly answer my mail. Posted 5 years ago
Your photo impresses me even more since I know the size of the beetle...
Bravo ! Posted 5 years ago
If you're interested there are some images of details here:
https://observation.org/waarneming/view/186103569
Cheers, Arp Posted 5 years ago, modified 5 years ago