Descriptions of four new species of Minyomerus Horn, 1876 sec. Jansen & Franz, 2018 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), with notes on their distribution and phylogeny

M Andrew Jansen; Nico M Franz

doi:10.7717/peerj.5633

Descriptions of four new species of Minyomerus Horn, 1876 sec. Jansen & Franz, 2018 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), with notes on their distribution and phylogeny

PeerJ. 2018 Oct 16:6:e5633. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5633. eCollection 2018.

Authors

M Andrew Jansen¹, Nico M Franz²

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
² ASU Natural History Collections, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Abstract

This contribution adopts the taxonomic concept approach, including the use of taxonomic concept labels (name sec. [according to] source) and region connection calculus-5 (RCC-5) articulations and alignments. Prior to this study, the broad-nosed weevil genus Minyomerus Horn, 1876 sec. Jansen & Franz, 2015 (Curculionidae [non-focal]: Entiminae [non-focal]: Tanymecini [non-focal]) contained 17 species distributed throughout the desert and plains regions of North America. In this review of Minyomerus sec. Jansen & Franz, 2018, we describe the following four species as new to science: Minyomerus ampullaceus sec. Jansen & Franz, 2018 (henceforth: [JF2018]), new species, Minyomerus franko [JF2018], new species, Minyomerus sculptilis [JF2018], new species, and Minyomerus tylotos [JF2018], new species. The four new species are added to, and integrated with, the preceding revision, and an updated key and phylogeny of Minyomerus [JF2018] are presented. A cladistic analysis using 52 morphological characters of 26 terminal taxa (5/21 outgroup/ingroup) yielded a single most-parsimonious cladogram (Length = 99 steps, consistency index = 60, retention index = 80). The analysis reaffirms the monophyly of Minyomerus [JF2018] with eight unreversed synapomorphies. The species-group placements, possible biogeographic origins, and natural history of the new species are discussed in detail.

Keywords: Biogeography; Cladistics; Concept taxonomy; Curculionidae; Desert; Entiminae; Minyomerus; New species; Region connection calculus; Weevils.

Associated data

Dryad/10.5061/dryad.j8c5j18

Grants and funding

This research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation (DEB-1155984) and the United States Department of Agriculture—Agricultural Research Service (Agreement 58-1275-1-335). There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.