Eur. J. Entomol. 104 (3): 505-515, 2007 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2007.071

Redescription of a weevil Paramecops sinaitus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Molytinae) from the Sinai and an ecological study of its interaction with the Sinai milkweed Asclepias sinaica (Gentianales: Asclepiadaceae)

Tim NEWBOLD1, Massimo MEREGALLI2, Enzo COLONNELLI3, Maxwell BARCLAY4, Shereen ELBANNA5, Nancy ABU FANDUD5, Frank FLEGG1, Rasha FOUAD5, Francis GILBERT1, Vanessa HALL1, Claire HANCOCK1, Mona ISMAIL5, Samr OSAMY5, Isra'a SABER5, Fayez SEMIDA5, Samy ZALAT5
1 School of Biology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; e-mail: timnewbold22@yahoo.co.uk
2 Department of Animal and Human Biology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy
3 Via delle Giunchiglie 56, Roma, Italy
4 Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
5 Department of Zoology, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

We collected specimens of Paramecops sinaitus (Pic, 1930) (Curculionidae: Molytinae) from south Sinai in Egypt, which enabled us to make the first complete description of this species. We also include some taxonomic remarks on the genus. Paramecops solenostemmatis (Peyerimhoff, 1930) is a synonym of Paramecops sinaitus. We propose the new combination Paramecops sogdianus (Nasreddinov, 1978), based on Perihylobius sogdianus Nasreddinov, 1978, which would make Perihylobius and Paramecops synonymous. Like other Paramecops species, P. sinaitus appears to share a close interaction with Asclepiads, in this case the Sinai milkweed Asclepias sinaica (Boiss.) Muschl., 1912 (Asclepiadaceae). We investigated the oviposition behaviour of female weevils to test whether it is linked to larval performance, as predicted by coevolutionary theory. We found that female oviposition preference was positively related to plant size and to the volume of the seed follicles in which the eggs were laid. The survival of eggs was negatively related to plant size, perhaps due to plant differences in the production of defensive cardenolides. Larval survival was not related to plant size but increased with follicle volume, probably as a result of competition for food. Paramecops is relatively sedentary and nocturnal in its behaviour. Night-time observations of behaviour showed that weevils were more active at lower temperatures.

Keywords: Curculionidae, Asclepias sinaica, chemical defence, coevolution, herbivory, new combination, new synonymies, Paramecops sinaitus, plant-insect interactions, redescription, secondary metabolites, taxonomy

Received: September 19, 2006; Revised: February 5, 2007; Accepted: February 5, 2007; Published: July 25, 2007  Show citation

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NEWBOLD, T., MEREGALLI, M., COLONNELLI, E., BARCLAY, M., ELBANNA, S., ABU FANDUD, N., ... ZALAT, S. (2007). Redescription of a weevil Paramecops sinaitus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Molytinae) from the Sinai and an ecological study of its interaction with the Sinai milkweed Asclepias sinaica (Gentianales: Asclepiadaceae). EJE, 104(3), 505-515. doi: 10.14411/eje.2007.071
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