Zimmerman, E.C.

Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society

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165Orochlesis in the Solomon Islands (Coleoptera, Curculionidae)BY ELWOOD C. ZIMMERMANBernice P. Bishop Museum(Presented at the meeting of December 3, 1937)Heretofore, the cryptorhynchine genus Orochlesis Pascoe, 1873,has not been recorded from the Solomon Islands. In my review ofthe genus (Bishop Museum, Occasional Papers, vol. 12, no. 1,1936), I listed 16 species distributed from the Malay Peninsula tothe Society Islands. In a later paper (Orochlesis of Fiji, BishopMuseum, Occasional Papers, vol. 12, no. 22, 1936), I added fournew species to the Fijian fauna to make a total of seven speciesfrom Fiji. Three species have been recorded from islands adjacentto Papua, but none have been described from the mainland; neitherhas the genus been found in New Caledonia nor the New Hebrides.Numerous species undoubtedly occur in those regions, however.The finding of the genus in the Solomon Islands reduces a geographical gap of almost 2,000 miles by approximately half. We maysafely assume that the genus has a continuous distribution fromMalaya to eastern Oceania.The specimens representing the new species herein describedwere sent to me from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College through the cooperation of Mr. P. J. Darlington.Orochlesis conspersa, new species.Derm black, moderately shiny, with the antennae and tarsi reddish-brown;densely clothed above with black scales interspersed with patches of brown,pale brown and white scales; scaling on the head dusky with a slight iridescenttinge and with a few scattered white setae on the crown and a line of palesetae along the inner margin of each eye; pronotum with pale brown to whitescales interspersed with black scales and setae, the pale scales distinctlypredominating, with a basal patch of dark or black scales before the secondand third elytral intervals; scaling on the elytra basically very dark brownor black, but tesselated with many patches of pale brown scales; each elytronwith the scales of the posterior callus white, making a small but conspicuouswhite spot, the second or second and third usually with a distinct, variable,pale area of either very pale or white scales at about the middle, the fourthinterval with a patch of white scales just before the middle in front of thepale patch on the second and third intervals, all of these pale patches distinctand noticeable to the unaided eyes, the median patch on the second and thirdintervals the most indefinite, scaling on the legs similar to that on the head,picked out with white, elongate, squamiform setae; scaling below pale todusky.Head coarsely, densely, reticulately punctured on the crown and inter-ocular area, each puncture bearing an oval scale or slanting, subsquamiformseta; interocular area only one half as broad as the base of the rostrum,straightly expanding from the top of the eyes distally. Rostrum very coarselypunctured as the interocular area to about half way between the eyes and theProc. Haw. Ent. Soc, X, No. 1, July, 1938.166antennae, thence shiny and minutely punctate to the apex. Antennae with thescape as long as the first three funicular segments; first funicular segmentslightly shorter and not broader than the second which is as long as three tofive inclusive, segments three to seven successively slightly shorter andbroader; club as long as the preceding five segments, in clean specimens verydensely clothed with short white or grey pile and sharply contrasting in colorwith the shiny, reddish funiculus. Prothorax about three fifths as long asbroad, strongly rounded on the sides from the bisinuate base to about theapical fourth and there slightly constricted, the subapical constriction continuing deeply and conspicuously across the dorsum which is otherwise stronglyconvex; coarsely and densely punctate, the interstices of the discal puncturesabout half as broad as the diameters of the punctures, each puncture bearingand capped by a large round scale or stout, subsquamiforrn, anteriorly inclined,prostrate seta, the scales three or four times as large as those of the elytraand but slightly imbricated but almost completely concealing the derm; thesetae condensed in a small patch on either side of the median line at the apex.Scutellum bare, shiny, convex. Blytra slightly more than two thirds as broadas long, two and one-half times as long as the prothorax; base very slightlyconcave on either side of the scutellar emargination, subparallel-sided fromthe base to about the middle, thence broadly arcuate to the rather pointed, butobtuse, apex, strongly convex, strongly gibbous in longitudinal dorsal outline,highest at one third from the base; striae squamose and but slightly impressedbetween the punctures which are large, deep, round and conspicuous; intervalsbroader than the strial punctures, flat, densely squamose, each bearing a rowof posteriorly inclined black or white setae usually borne from low, polishedtubercles. Legs with the femora edentate, densely squamose, coarsely anddensely punctate; tibiae strongly flattened, the fore pair distinctly concavealong the posterior face and finely, longitudinally carinate along the loweredge of the anterior face; first tarsal segment as long as two plus three, secondone third longer than broad, as long as the third which is slightly broaderthan long and three fifths as long as the fourth. Sternum with the walls of themesosternal receptacle rather flattened and on the same plane as the metaster-num, not produced below it; metasternum closely set with large, coarse, rounddeep punctures, almost or quite as long as a metacoxal cavity at its narrowestpoint between the mid and hind coxae. Venter with all the ventrites squamoseand setose, but not densely so, the first ventrite with rather coarse puncturesat the base, smaller and less conspicuous caudad, the other ventrites shallowlyand finely punctate but with the fifth somewhat more coarsely punctate thanthe second. Length, 3-7 mm.; breadth, 2.25-4 mm.Solomon Islands: Holotype male, and two paratypes to bedeposited in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge,and two paratypes stored in Bernice P. Bishop Museum. All thespecimens were collected by Dr. W. M. Mann, and unfortunatelylabeled only "Solomon Isl." with no additional data as to locality.The holotype is a male with its aedeagus protruding, andalthough the female sex seems to be represented in the series, I amnot certain of my diagnosis and have, therefore, not designated afemale allotype.This species is closely allied to the Fijian Orochlesis eluta Zimmerman, but on this species the walls of the mesosternal receptacleare on a continuous plane with the metasternum and not at all produced below it as they are in 0. eluta. The strial punctures on thisspecies are larger and more conspicuous than those of O. eluta.

Orochlesis in the Solomon Islands (Coleoptera, Curculionidae)

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Orochlesis in the Solomon Islands (Coleoptera, Curculionidae)

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