On the Host Plant and Distribution of the Weevil Genus Egriodes Marshall (Coleoptera, Curculionidae: Ceutorhynchitae) in Africa

Abstract

Egriodes dollmani Marshall and E. septentrionalis Colonnelli have been collected in numbers on Gymnosporia senegalensis trees in Ethiopia. This is the first record of a host of the genus Egriodes, endemic to Africa. The weevils occurred mostly on the buds of the tree at the beginning of blossom in December. Egriodes dollmani and E. alticollis Marshall, apparently very similar to E. septentrionalis, were collected together also in Zimbabwe by Sir G.A.K. Marshall; E. dollmani and E. alticollis were collected together in two localities in Namibia by the Late Ch.W. O’Brien, L.B. O’Brien, and G.B. Marshall. Egriodes loisae Korotyaev, sp. n., is described from Namibia where it was the only species of this genus found near Grootfontein. Taken the broad range of Gymnosporia senegalensis, association of all the listed species with this plant looks probable and calls for the further search of Egriodes on it in other regions of Africa, southern Middle East, South and South-East Asia.