Male and female genital structures of Bangasternus planifrons (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Rhinocyllini) from Turkey: A scanning electron microscope study

Abstract

Bangasternus planifrons (Brullé, 1832) specimens collected from Ankara-Bala were studied. The paper presents a scanning electron microscopic examination of ultrastructural features of aedeagus and spermatheca of Bangasternus planifrons (Brullé, 1832) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Rhinocyllini) from Türkiye for the first time. The fact that Bangasternus is a genus with three species in Türkiye makes the study more important. Accordingly, detailed investigation of aedeagus and spermatheca is very important to obtain new diagnostic characteristics in Bangasternus. The parts which include systematic characters such as spermatheca, genital spicule, sternite eight and coxite figures were drawn in detail and these characters were discussed on species, genera and tribus levels. While significant differences were observed among the species in genital spicula, coxite, stylus and spermateca, a difference that would reveal a genus discrimination character by evaluating these structures could not be obtained according to the available findings. Photos in stereomicroscope and scanning electron microscope are also given in the text.