The morphology of the preimaginal stages of Squamapion elongatum (Germar, 1817) (Coleoptera, Curculionoidea, Apionidae) and notes on its biology

Abstract

Data on the morphology of the egg, mature larva (L3) and pupa of Squamapion elongatum (Germar, 1817) are presented. The development cycle of this species lasts 51–54 days: a 12-day egg period, a 30-day larval period, and a 12-day pupal period, on average. The larvae are attacked by parasitic hymenopterans of the superfamily Chalcidoidea.

Description of the larva and pupa of Apion brevicorne Gerstaecker, 1854 (Coleoptera: Brentidae: Apioninae) with biological information

“…The number of spiracles (6 pairs) in larval A. brevicorne and Holartic Podapion Riley, 1883 differ from that for typical Apioninae (7 pairs) as well (Emden, 1938;Scherf, 1964;Wang et al, 2013;Alonso-Zarazaga & Wanat, 2014;Letowski et al, 2015). Also, pupal A. brevicorne have less setae everywhere except on the femora.…”

“…All of the 13 species of Apioninae whose immature stages have been described are in seven of the subtribes of the Apionini (Williams, 1968;May, 1994;Sanz Benito & Gurrea Sanz, 1999;Nikulina, 2016;Wang et al, 2013;Letowski et al, 2015). We found that morphology of Apion brevicorne larvae and pupae described herein are very different from other species in these subtribes (especially the reduced chaetotaxy of the mala, thorax and abdomen) and different from other generalized endophagous Apioninae (May, 1993(May, , 1994Wang et al, 2013;Alonso-Zarazaga & Wanat, 2014) and other Curculionoidea (Oberprieler et al, 2014) (Tables 1 and 2).…”

“…Larval and pupal chaetotaxy of Apion brevicorne were compared with 13 species in the Apioninae: Malvapion malvae (Malvapiina), Pirapion immune (Oxystomatina) (Williams, 1968), six Exapion species (Exapiina) (May, 1994;Sanz Benito & Gurrea Sanz, 1999), Apion frumentarium (Apionina), Pseudaplemonus aeneicollis (Aplemonina) and Stenopterapion margelanicum (Oxystomatina) (Nikulina, 2016), Squamapion elongatum (Kalcapiina) (Letowski et al, 2015) and Pseudaspidapion botanicum (Aspidapiina) (Wang et al, 2013).…”

“…40 species outside of the Neotropical Region, much of which includes only simple descriptions for larvae identification in keys. Of the 35 species in the Palearctic, 23 are in one key for larvae identification (Emden, 1938), while larvae of 12 other species have been described in detail: Malvapion malvae (Fabricius, 1775) (Malvapiina), Pirapion immune (Kirby, 1808) (Oxystomatina) (Williams, 1968), six Exapion Bedel species (Exapiina) (May, 1994;Sanz Benito & Gurrea Sanz, 1999) also with description of pupae, and only larvae are described in Apion frumentarium (Linnaeus, 1758) (Apionina), Pseudaplemonus aeneicollis (Gerstaecker, 1854) (Aplemonina) and Stenopterapion margelanicum (Wagner, 1912) (Oxystomatina) (Nikulina, 2016), and both larvae and pupae of Squamapion elongatum (Germar, 1817) (Kalcapiina) (Letowski et al, 2015). Larvae and pupae in the Palearctic and Oriental Pseudaspidapion botanicum Alonso Zarazaga & Wang, 2011 (Aspidapiina) are also described in detail (Wang et al, 2013).…”

The morphology of the preimaginal stages of Rhinusa neta (Germar, 1821) and notes on its biology (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Mecinini)

“…In the last ten years a number of studies by various authors have described the larval and pupal morphology of several taxa of Curculionoidea (Curculionidae, Apionidae): Lixinae (Gosik and Skuhrovec 2011; Gosik and Wanat 2014; Skuhrovec and Volovnik 2015; Trnka et al 2015, 2016), Tychiini (Skuhrovec et al 2014, 2015; Gosik et al 2017), Ceutorhynchinae (Gosik 2010b), Bagous (Gosik 2008), Hyperini (Skuhrovec 2006, 2007; Skuhrovec and Bogusch 2016), Entiminae (Gosik and Sprick 2013; Gosik et al 2016), Molytinae (Sprick and Gosik 2014; Arzanov 2016) and Apionidae (Gosik et al 2010; Wang et al 2013; Łętowski et al 2015). However, within the tribe Mecinini there are only two studies providing detailed descriptions of certain preimaginal stages of a few taxa (Gosik 2010a; Jiang and Zhang 2015).…”