G. it. Ent., 16 (66): 159-168
March 2021
Contributo ad una migliore conoscenza di
Orthochaetes alpicola K. Daniel, 1904,
con descrizione di O. giorgiae,
nuova specie steno-endemica delle Prealpi Lombarde Centrali
(Coleoptera Curculionidae Notarinae)
di
RICCARDO MONGUZZI
Abstract - Contribution to a better knowledge of Orthochaetes alpicola K. Daniel, 1904, with description of O. giorgiae, new steno-endemic species of the Central Lombard Prealps (Coleoptera Curculionidae Notarinae) - The decades-long systematic investigations carried out by the Author on the Prealpine coleopterofauna allow him to unequivocally ascertain how, under the only name of Orthochaetes alpicola K. Daniel, 1904, two different species of almost identical appearance are currently included, but immediately distinguishable on the basis of the characteristics of male genitalia: one, that is Daniel's original taxon, spread from the Ligurian Alps to the Venetian Prealps; the other, described here (O. giorgiae n. sp.), steno-endemic of some "massifs de refuge" of the Central Lombard Prealps and, from the data emerged, probably vicariant of the former. To illustrate the wide morphological variability of the edeagus of almost all the known populations of both entities, aedeagus which in this case also proves to be the most decisive diacritical character, a broad iconography is therefore provided. On the basis of these new data, it is finally deemed appropriate to propose the new synonymy between the nominal subspecies of O. alpicola K. Daniel, 1904 and O. alpicola occidentalis Osella & Zuppa, 1994.
