Oncid ID: Tool for Diagnosing Adult Twig Girdlers (Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Onciderini)
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Genus: Eudesmus

Diagnostic Features
  • Description: Elongate-oblong, small to moderate-sized, ranging from about 11–19 mm in length. Integument generally dark brown with whitish, ferrugineous, black, and ochraceous pubescence. Head with frons subquadrate to transverse, about as wide as width of four lower eye lobes. Eyes with lower lobes small, ovate-oblong. Genae elongate, about as tall to distinctly taller than lower eye lobes. Antennal tubercles prominent, widely separated; tubercles not armed at apex (females) or armed with a small projection, or with a short, blunt horn (males); antennae about as long as overall body length, or as much as 1 2/3 times as long; scape clavate, about as long or shorter than antennomere IV; antennomere III variable in shape and sexually dimorphic, from nearly straight to curved to sinuate (females) or strongly elliptical (males), about as long or longer than scape and ranging from shorter to longer than antennomere IV. Pronotum transverse, roughly cylindrical to conical, distinctly narrower at base, with or without lateral tubercles. Elytra with sides roughly parallel; elytral apices individually or jointly rounded; elytra generally uniform in coloration or speckled, or with distinct maculae at apical 1/3; base of elytra with two prominent tubercles at humeri. Basal 1/3 of elytra with dense punctation, surface coarsely punctate to granulate-punctate. Procoxae without projection. Mesosternal process with apex subtruncate to feebly emarginate. Metafemora moderate to short in length, about 1/3–1/4 as long as elytra.

  • The combination of the following characters will help to distinguish this genus: small eyes, widely separated; strongly elliptical antennomere III in males; elytra with sides roughly parallel; and apical 1/3 of elytra often with distinct maculae.

  • Similar genus/genera: males of this genus strongly resemble male specimens of Clavidesmus and Strioderes. This genus also superficially resembles Apocoptoma and some species of Trestonia.
Geographic Distribution
  • Central America (all countries)

  • South America (Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela)
Host Plants/Trees
  • Sterculiaceae (Theobroma cacao [cocoa])
Girdling Behavior
  • Unknown
Notes

The genus Eudesmus currently contains seven species:
  Eudesmus diopites Dillon & Dillon, 1946
  Eudesmus ferrugineus (Thomson, 1860) [type specimen]
  Eudesmus caudalis Bates, 1865 [type specimen, ♂]
  Eudesmus grisescens Audinet-Serville, 1835 [type specimen, ♀]
  Eudesmus nicaraguensis Breuning, 1958
  Eudesmus posticalis Guérin-Méneville, 1844 [♀ specimen]
  Eudesmus posticalis Guérin-Méneville, 1844 [type specimen, ♂]
  Eudesmus rubefactus Bates, 1865 [type specimen, ♂]

Generic Synonymies
  • Larvica
Selected References
 

Eudesmus posticalis
♀ specimen
© E.H. Nearns

 

© 2011-2015 Nearns, E.H., Lord, N.P., and K.B. Miller
The University of New Mexico and Center for Plant Health Science and Technology, USDA, APHIS, PPQ.