The smallest known species of Afrotropical Scolytoplatypus Schaufuss (Curculionidae, Scolytinae) - with unique features and an isolated phylogenetic position

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.