Accepted by R. Anderson: 17 Jan. 2014; published: 27 Feb. 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2014 Magnolia Press Zootaxa 3768 (4): 487–496 www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article 487 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3768.4.6 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3E2D447A-A7C4-4E99-A919-13855378FC31 The first discovery of the genus Meira Jacquelin du Val outside the western mediterranean area, with description of a new species (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Entiminae) CESARE BELLÒ 1 & COSIMO BAVIERA 2,3 1 World Biodiversity Association Via A.Vespucci,11/A, 31033 Castelfranco Veneto, Italy. E-mail: cesarebello@ortoveneto.it 2 Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Viale F. Stagno d'Alcontres,31 98166 Messina, Italy. E-mail: cbaviera@unime.it 3 Corresponding author Abstract A new species of Meira Jacquelin du Val, 1852 from northeast Italy is described: Meira mariaesilvanae sp. n. This is the first discovery of the genus Meira in the northeast of Italy outside the hitherto known distribution. Ecological and distri- butional data are provided for the new species. Photos of habitus, some morphological details, genitalia and of the type locality illustrate the work. In addition we provide a dichotomous key to Italian species and a checklist to known Meira species. Key words: Peritelini, Meira mariaesilvanae sp. n., taxonomy, ecology, phenology Riassunto Viene descritta una nuova specie di Meira Jacquelin du Val, 1852 del nord-est dell’Italia: Meira mariaesilvanae sp. n. Questo è il primo ritrovamento del genere nel nordest dell’Italia, al di fuori della sua distribuzione finora conosciuta. Della nuova specie vengono fornite informazioni sulla distribuzione e sulla ecologia. Foto dell’habitus della nuova specie, di alcuni particolari morfologici, degli apparati genitali e della località tipica illustrano il lavoro. Viene inoltre fornita una chiave dicotomica per l’identificazione delle specie italiane ed una checklist delle specie di Meira attualmente note. Introduction This work stems from passion for the natural science by the second author, which made possible an unexpected and somewhat sensational discovery of a new species of Meira Jacquelin du Val, 1853. This is the first discovery of a Meira outside of its known distribution, specifically the northern part of the western mediterranean area (sensu Vigna Taglianti et al., 1999), about 200 km away from the Apennines, the nearest area from where it was previously known (Figs.12, 13). In addition it is the first discovery of a Peritelini weevil, not of the genus Simo Dejean, 1821, in the northeast of Italy. The type locality (Fig. 15) of the new species is located halfway along the eastern shore of Garda Lake, at 260 meters of altitude on the gentle slope of Mount Baldo in a typical prealpine xerothermic“oasis”. This unexpected finding encouraged the first author to conduct more intensive and extensive field research which led to the discovery of several additional specimens in two new places and new and interesting ecological and phenological observations. This discovery increases our knowledge about the peculiar insect fauna of the prealpine xerothermic biotope (Magistretti & Ruffo, 1959; Osella, 1968, 1970). Meira is a taxonomically complex genus on which there have been a number of recently published works (Delaunay, 2011; Delanauy & Melle, 2013; Osella et al., 2005; Pierotti & Bellò, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2010; Pierotti & Fink, 2013; Pierotti & Rouault, 2010; Pierotti, 2011, 2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c; Rouault, 2013; Pierotti et al., 2010; Tinti et al., 1994). The Catalogue of Palaeartic Coleoptera recently published (Pierotti, 2013c) lists 16