Forum Entomologi Italiani

Was captured in SE Greece (Peloponnesus), in altitude of about 850 m., unique specimen, female. Length 3.7 mm (without the rostrum).
It is clearly diferent of all the 10 known Greek species of this genus and surprisingly, it is very similar to Curculio vicetinus Cussigh, 1989, a species endemic of central part of West Europe.
Can I have your help, please ???

George

Controlla che non sia un Curculio villosus Fabricius, 1781

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Fabio Talamelli
Centro Studi Naturalistici Valconca
talamellif@libero.it
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Tel. 3384150775

Yes, it was the first one I did. I have specimens of C. villosus for comparison, there are clear differences.
This morning I found an article by P. Sláma about the distribution of C. vicetinus. He adds to the already known countries, the Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and SE Turkey !!!

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... culioninae

Also strange is that where I found it in Greece, there are no Acer pseudoplatanus. Only a small, evergreen Acer species. But, I imagine the same will happen in SE Turkey, at the locality given by the paper of Sláma.

George, scrivo in italiano, spero tu capisca, altrimenti fammelo sapere e traduco in inglese.
Dalle foto che hai postato non è facile capire se si tratta di vicetinus o di villosus, ma nell'articolo di Slama che hai citato c'è una chiave che dovrebbe consentirti di determinarlo con sicurezza. Se è vicetinus è sicuramente un dato importante. L'areale della specie si sta rivelando molto più ampio del previsto. E' strano, comunque, che Slama nel suo lavoro del 2015 non citi gli articoli di Rheinheimer 2013, Germann 2014 e Callot 2014 che segnalano la specie da Germania, Svizzera e Francia (qui se ne parla).

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Silvano

Do not worry about the Italian language, after the volumes of Antonio Porta and 7 years in our forum, I understand them quite well now.
It is strange indeed that Sláma does not take into account, all of these previous works.
Was applied this key of Sláma, as well as that of Käfer Europas (Curculio Bestimmungstabelle) : With both, the result is the same, Curculio vicetinus !!!

Il consiglio, a questo punto, è banale: se puoi, torna in zona nella stessa epoca e ombrella tutti gli aceri (e non solo) dei dintorni. Ti direi anche di cercare galle simili a quelle raffigurate nei vari articoli citati. Se trovi il maschio e compi osservazioni sulla biologia della specie, mi sembra un contributo decisamente interessante.

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Silvano

Hopefully I will be lucky. April is approaching and this area is just 3.5 hours away from Athens.
A very good locality for collecting. We'll see...
Best Wishes,
G.

I want to add information about distribution of C. vicetinus. I have 1 female 100% C. vicetinus from Austria. Slama et other authors d'not mention Austria.

Thanks Ilya. Where in Austria?

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Silvano

Wien

It seems as C. vicetinus, but for confirmation you can contact Pavel Sláma ( e-mail: pavel_slama(at)nm.cz )

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Ciao Petr

When this specimen was found (2014), I did not know at all, the existence of Curculio vicetinus. Not all of these works were known, which first appeared in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
So, it was forgotten for 5 years in the collection, as a "strange" species, under the name Curculio sp.
Now, the identification (as Curculio vicetinus), based on the new knowledges, was rather easy. But it is a female ...
I hope I will have at least 1 male in the next few months. The examination of aedeagus seems as necessary.

Thank you very much to all !!!

It all but clear to distinguish Curculio vicetinus from C. villosus, although the claimed host plant difference can help. It is also somewhat "strange" that the behaviour of this species is similar to that of the close genus Archarius. When one comes across worldwide species of Curculionini, it appears that generic boundaries are quite weak.
In a few time you will surely collect more specimens as to be certain of their identity, I hope.
Enzo

is it sure that, according to its biology, vicetinus is to be considered a true Curculio and not an Archarius? if i remember correcly, at the time of its description, Archarius (formerly called Balanobius) was treated as a synonym of Curculio

p.s. i have discovered, just now, that in fauna eur vicetinus is an Archastes...

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maurizio

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