The South American weevil genus Rhyephenes (Coleoptera: Curculionidae; Cryptorhynchinae).
1996; BioOne; Volume: 104; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1937-2361
Autores Tópico(s)Scarabaeidae Beetle Taxonomy and Biogeography
Resumo-The genus Rhyephenes Schoenherr, endemic to the Central Chilean and Subant arctic biogeographic provinces of southern South America, is easily recognized by its black body with shape resembling a spider. This genus includes seven species: Rhyephenes clathratus R. Philippi, R. gayi (Guerin), R. goureaui (Gay & Solier), R. humeralis (Guerin), R. lateralis (Guerin), R. maillei (Gay & Solier), and R. squamiger F. Philippi (reinstated herein from syn onymy with R. gayi). A key, redescriptions, habitus photographs, and illustrations of the species are provided, and their geographical distribution is mapped. A cladistic analysis using 21 char acters from external morphology and male and female genitalia produced four cladograms (CI = 0.55, RI = 0.51, length 43 steps), which after successive weighting were reduced to one cladogram (CI = 0.82, RI = 0.85, length 111 steps). In the cladogram, the following phylo genetic sequence results: (R. squamiger, (R. lateralis, ((R. clathratus, R. goureaui), (R. gayi, (R. humeralis, R. maillei))))). Biogeographic patterns exhibited by these species indicate a sequence from central Chile to southern Chile and Argentina. The weevil genus Rhyephenes (Curculionidae: Cryptorhynchinae) was described by Schoenherr (1837). This taxon of uncertain placement is one of the most char acteristic weevil genera from central Chile, with two species extending also to south ern Chile and Argentina. They are popularly known in Spanish as arafiitas (little spiders), because of their typical habitus (see Figs. 1-14). Sixteen species-group names proposed by several authors (Guerin, 1830; Erichson, 1834; Gyllenhal, 1837; Gay & Solier, 1839; Blanchard, 1853; R. Philippi, 1859; F Philippi, 1899; Fiedler, 1942) were assigned to Rhyephenes. This nomenclatural proliferation is mainly due to the intraspecific variability of the species of Rhyephenes, which led authors to describe as valid species mere geographical variants. Recent synonymies by Kuschel (1993) and Morrone (1994) reduced the number of species to six. I suspected, how ever, that the synonymy of R. squamiger F Philippi and R. gayi (Guerin) by Kuschel (1993) was incorrect. A cladistic analysis of its species can help ellucidate which are the valid species of Rhyephenes. MATERIAL AND METHODS The specimens examined in this study are from the following collections: AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA (Lee Herman); BMNH, The Natural History Museum, London, Great Britain (Christopher Lyal); CWOB, Charles W. O'Brien private collection, Tallahassee, USA (Charles O'Brien); IADIZA, Insti tuto de Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas, Mendoza, Argentina (Sergio Roig-Ju fnent); IPCN, Instituto Patagonico de Ciencias Naturales, San Martin de los Andes, Argentina (Mario Gentili); MACN, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernar dino Rivadavia, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Axel Bachmann); MHNS, Museo Na This content downloaded from 157.55.39.225 on Wed, 28 Sep 2016 04:47:17 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 2 JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Vol. 104(1-2) Table 1. Data matrix and list of characters used in the cladistic analysis of Rhyephenes. 0 = plesiomorphic; 1, 2, 3 = apomorphic. outgroup 00000 00000 00000 00000 0 R. clathratus 11001 11001 21100 00010 0 R. gayi 1001
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