Revision of the genus Zabrotes Horn of Mexico (Coleoptera : Bruchidae : Amblycerinae)

There are 18 species of Zabrotes Horn in Mexico. Of these we described the following seven species as new: Z. achiote, Z. californiensis, Z. flemingia , Z. guerrerensis, Z. ixtapan, Z. moctezuma, and Z. sinaloensis. The other 11 species we redescribed and discussed were Z. amplissimus Kingsolver, Z. bexarensis Kingsolver, Z. chavesi Kingsolver, Z. densus Horn, Z. interstiti alis (Chevrolat), Z. obliteratus Horn, Z. planifrons Horn, Z. spectabilis H orn, Z. subfasciatus (Boheman), Z. sylvestris Romero and Johnson, and Z. vi ctoriensis Kingsolver. We provided a key to the genera of Amblycerinae and to the species of Zabrotes of Mexico. The host plants of the three genera o f Amblycerinae (Amblycerus, Spermophagus, Zabrotes) are discussed. There ar e 35 species of Zabrotes, all native to the New World. Of these, 12 have kn own hosts. All the known hosts of Zabrotes are in the Fabaceae with a quest ionable record in the Bixaceae. Zabrotes subfasciatus, the Mexican bean wee vil, is thought to have originally fed in seeds of New World beans but due to commerce it has become a tropicopolitan pest of stored legumes and expan ded its host range due to its proximity to other legume seeds in storage. T here are approximately 90 species of Spermophagus that have been described in the Old World, about 35 are reported to have hosts. Twenty-four species of Spermophagus have been reported to feed in species of Convolvulaceae. On ly five species have been reported from the Malvaceae and three species fro m the Fabaceae. Because seeds of species of Convolvulaceae are fed upon fre ely by bruchids in the genus Megacerus (Bruchinae) in the New World, we bel ieve that reports of Spermophagus larvae feeding in these seeds in the Old World to be at least in part accurate. Most species of Amblycerus feed in s eeds of the Fabaceae but species of Amblycerus may have the most extensive scope of host plants of any genus of bruchids. Species in this genus have b een reliably reported to feed in seeds of the families Fabaceae, Malpighiac eae, Rhamnaceae, Boraginaceae, Sterculiaceae, Tiliaceae, Vitaceae, Euphorbi aceae, Combretaceae, and Anacardiaceae.