Forum Entomologi Italiani

Buon giorno!

Questo Bruchidius con le antenne corte e rosse e con i femuri mezzo nero mezzo rosso è da maggio da est die Mallorca. È possibile dire qualcosa sulla specie?

Grazie,
Michael

A member of Bruchidius seminarius group. To proper identification study of male genitalia is necessary:

Anton, K.W., 1998, Revision of the Genus Bruchidius. Part I: The B.seminarius Group (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). Stuttg.Beitr.Natur. Ser.A (Biologie), 573 (13S): 1-13.

Thank you for the answer.

I looked at the descriptions in Anton: Revision of..., but the coloring of the antennae and the legs seem not to fit for any of those species. Are they so variable? The specimens I collected all seem rather similar.

While reading in diverse keys I found Bruchidius martinezi, which should have pure red antenna, and the tibia are red, as well as the tarses, only the last tarsomere is black, and the femura are party black, partly red. This seems to fit perfectly. Could this be?`

Michael

My first identification to the seminarius group is probably wrong. Shape of basal antennal segments is poor visible. If second and third segments are short and distinctly shorter than fourth segment then beetles belong to the B. varius group. See discussion under Bruchidium martinezi in a key to Bruchidius on the web page Die Käfer Europas (http://www.coleo-net.de/coleo/texte/bruchidius.htm). Maybe your beetles belong to an undescribed species noted as Bruchidius martinezi sensu auct. or true B. martinezi.