Abstract
Recent flight intercept trapping in Gabon provided four female specimens of a new species of Scolytoplatypus Schaufuss with several unusual features. It is the smallest known Afrotropical species found to date (1.6 mm long), it has unusually long antennal clubs, and some characters show resemblance to small Asian species or to the Malagasy genus Remansus Jordal. Genetic data from four genes nevertheless place this species as the sister lineage to all other Afrotropical species where it forms an isolated position corresponding to deviant morphological features.
Highlights
Species in the tribe Scolytoplatypodini are ambrosia beetles which cultivate fungi in wood tunnels as the only food source for larvae and adults
Recent work has pointed out considerable variation in crucial anatomical parts such as the shape of the scutellum and the protibiae (Jordal 2013), or variation in sexual dimorphism across continents (Beaver and Gebhardt 2006). This led to the erection of a new genus Remansus Jordal and phylogenetic analyses documented deep divergence between this genus and Scolytoplatypus, and between Asian and African species
Specimens were compared to types and co-types of most Afrotropical species in the Natural History Museum of Vienna, and some superficially similar Asian species
Summary
Species in the tribe Scolytoplatypodini are ambrosia beetles which cultivate fungi in wood tunnels as the only food source for larvae and adults. Recent work has pointed out considerable variation in crucial anatomical parts such as the shape of the scutellum and the protibiae (Jordal 2013), or variation in sexual dimorphism across continents (Beaver and Gebhardt 2006). This led to the erection of a new genus Remansus Jordal and phylogenetic analyses documented deep divergence between this genus and Scolytoplatypus, and between Asian and African species. DNA data clearly associate this species with the Afrotropical clade, and phylogenetic analyses indicate a rather isolated position of the species
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