Taxonomic revision of the South American Belidae (Coleoptera)

Abstract

The South American species of Belidae are revised. These weevils are considered primitive Curculionoidea, due to some morphological aspects, the phytophagous habits of many species, the correlation with pteridophytes (ferns) and gymnosperms (mainly conifers) and their remarkably discontinuous distribution. Living species are know only from Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, New Zealand and southern South America. The bulk of species is found in Australia. No fossils are as yet known. Unfortunately these weevils are very rare, at least in collections, and this scarcity may be related to the almost unknown biology of the group. New data on the internal anatomy of Homalocerus lyciformis Boh., as well as other data gathered in this revision, support the idea of the group's primitiveness and its family status, the latter still discussed by some authors. Fourteen South American species are recognized in this study, three of which described as new, all from Brazil: Dicordylus serranus, n. sp. (type-locality, Brazil, State of Minas Gerais, Serra do Caraça); Homalocerus flavicornis, n. sp. (type-locality, Brazil, State of Rio de Janeiro); Homalocerus longirostris, n. sp. (typ,e-locality, Brazil, State of Santa Catarina, Rio Vermelho). Two names are placed in synonymy: Homalocerus punctum Pascoe, syn. n. of Homalocerus nigripennis Boh., and Homalocerus zikani Bondar, syn. n. of Homalocerus xixim Bondar. The new genus Atractuchus is erected for a Chilean species formerly placed in Dicordylus. The splitting of Dicordylus binotatus and Atractuchus annulifer in subspecies, as suggested by Kuschel (1959), is briefly dismissed and maintained, even though this subject should need further analyses, based on more representative material. The distribution of each species is mapped and discussed. The genus Dicordylus, previously thought to be endemic to the Chilean Subregion is for the first time recorded from Brazil. An attempt is made to give the phylogenetic trends for the South American genera and species.