ISRAEL JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY, Vol. 40, 2010, pp. 25–70 Review of the genus Brachycerus Olivier in Israel (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea: Brachyceridae: Brachycerinae) ARIEL-LEIB-LEONID FRIEDMAN AND AMIR SAGIV Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. E-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT Ten species of Brachycerus are recorded from Israel and keyed, of which Brachycerus hermoniacus n. sp., Brachycerus groneri n. sp., and Brachycerus wizeni n. sp. are described as new. A review of the morphology of Palaearctic Brachycerus species and redescriptions of several poorly known East Medi- terranean species are provided. Taxonomic problems in several species are resolved: the status of Brachycerus aegyptiacus Olivier, B. cinereus Olivier, and B. cribrarius Olivier is clarified; the nameBrachycerus junix Lichtenstein is rejected as nomen dubium. A lectotype is designated for B. orbipennis Reiche and de Saulcy. A division of the Palaearctic Brachycerus species into four groups is suggested. KEYWORDS: Brachyceridae, Brachycerus, Israel, new species, taxonomy, zoogeography INTRODUCTION The Brachyceridae (obese weevils, lily weevils) is a small weevil family, distributed in the Afrotropical region and in dry subtropical areas of the Palaearctic region. The genus Brachycerus Olivier, 1789, is the largest in the family (comprising about 500 species (Louw, 1990)), distributed across Africa, the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, the Mediterranean subregion, the Caucasus, and Central Asia (Zumpt, 1937a,b; Haaf 1957a,b; Alonso-Zarazaga and Lyal, 1999; Arzanov, 2005). The Afri- can species of Brachycerus were revised by Haaf (1957a,b; 1958). In the Palaearctic region, Brachycerus comprises about 40 described species, most of which are found in the Mediterranean subregion, of which 14 are recorded from the Levant (Bedel, 1874; Baudi, 1894; Alfieri, 1976; Arzanov, 2005); Reiche and de Saulcy, 1857; Bodenheimer, 1937; Zumpt, 1937a,b; Georghiou, 1977; Lodos, 1977).