Anthaxia (Anthaxia) ulmi, Bílý, Svatopluk, 2005

Bílý, Svatopluk, 2005, Two new species in the Anthaxia (Anthaxia) manca (Linnaeus, 1767) species­group from China (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Zootaxa 965, pp. 1-7 : 2-5

Anthaxia (Anthaxia) ulmi , new species

( Figs 1 , 5, 7, 9 )

Type material. Holotype (male): “ China, Shanxi, Yongji – Zhongtiaoshan mts, 4.5. — 12.5.2004, leg. E. Kučera”; allotype (female): the same data; paratypes (2 males): the same data; all type specimens were reared from a branch of Ulmus sp. Holotype and one paratype deposited in the National Museum, Prague, allotype and one paratype in the coll. of E. Kučera (Sob slav, Czech Republic).

Type locality: China, Prov. Shanxi, Yongji – Zhongtiaoshan Mts.

Diagnosis. Large, colourful species resembling by its colour and body­shape A. deaurata (Gmelin, 1790) ( Fig. 1 ); frons black, vertex golden­red, pronotum golden­red with dark anterior angles and two large, longitudinal discal spots not reaching anterior and posterior margins; narrow, medial depression of pronotum golden green; elytra black margined with purple basal and lateral stripes; basal transverse elytral depression, narrow sutural stripe reaching 1/3 of elytral length and anterior half of elytral margins golden green; ventral side dark golden­purple, antennae, scutellum and legs black; frons with long, nearly lanuginose, white pubescence, pronotum and elytra with short, semierect and sparse, white pubescence; ventral side and legs with rather long, erect, white pubescence.

Description of holotype. Head relatively small, much narrower than anterior pronotal margin; frons nearly flat, only very slightly and widely concave; vertex flat, 0.6 times as wide as eye, eyes large, reniform, slightly projecting beyond outline of head, their inner margins slightly S­shaped; sculpture of head consisting of small but rough and dense polygonal cells with small and sharp central grains; antennae long, nearly reaching posterior pronotal angles, antennomeres 4–10 sharply serrate, terminal antennomere small, trapezoidal to ovoid; basal antennomere nearly 3 times as long as wide, pear­shaped, second antennomere 1.5 times as long as wide, enlarged distally, third antennomere triangular, about twice as long as wide.

Pronotum twice as wide as long, posterior margin nearly straight, anterior margin deeply bisinuous; lateral pronotal margins evenly rounded, maximum pronotal width at anterior one­third, posterior pronotal angles obtuse; laterobasal pronotal depressions small and weakly developed, median, longitudinal depression deep, reaching from prescutellar part nearly to the anterior margin; pronotal sculpture consisting of rough oval and polygonal cells with large central grains which are somewhat transversely enlarged on pronotal disc and nearly indistinct in median, pronotal depression. Scutellum small, pentagonal, convex and finely microsculptured.

Elytra rather flat, 2.3 times as long as wide, distinctly wedge­shaped; humeral swellings large and well­developed, transverse basal depression deep, reaching from humeri to scutellum; posterior half of elytral margins finely but sharply serrate, each elytron separately rounded; elytral epipleura well­developed, wide, nearly reaching elytral apex, separated from elytral disc by sharp carina so that anterior half of elytral margins is somewhat groove­shaped; sculpture of elytra consisting of rough and dense grains which are somewhat transversely enlarged on elytral disc and distinctly finer and denser along lateral margins.

Ventral side lustrous with rather dense and rough punctation on sterna and sparser, somewhat horse­shoe­shaped punctation on ventrites; last ventrite apically truncate, its lateral margins finely serrate in posterior one­third. Legs long and slender, mesotibiae irregularly serrate on distal half of inner margins, metatibiae flattened and enlarged in distal half with several sharp inner denticles ( Fig. 7 ); mesotarsus as long as mesotibia, metatarsus distinctly longer than metatibia. Claws simple, slightly enlarged at base.

Aedeagus ( Fig. 5 ) long and slender, only slightly enlarged in its midlength, medial lobe simple, obtusely pointed apically.

Sexual dimorphism. No sexual dimorphism was found, except for the shape of meso­ and metatibiae which are simple in female and the shape of anal ventrite which is deeply and widely incised in female ( Fig. 9 ).

Measurements. Length: 9.3–11.0 mm (holotype 9.3 mm); width: 2.9–3.1 mm (holotype 2.9 mm).

Bionomy. The type series were reared from branches of Ulmus sp. Larvae of nearly all species in this species­group develop in this plant genus ( Bílý, 2002).

Etymology. The species name is derived from the Latin name of the host plant ( Ulmus ).

Differential diagnosis. Anthaxia ulmi belongs to the western­Palaearctic A. manca species­group, resembling in colouration and size some forms of A. deaurata (Gmelin, 1790) . It differs from all species of the group (except in distribution) by its distinctly longer and slender elytra, flattened and enlarged male metatibiae and long, slender aedeagus with pointed medial lobe (all other species of the group possess apically more or less truncate medial lobe and usually also laterally widened parameres).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 4. 1 — Anthaxia (Anthaxia) ulmi n. sp., holotype, male, 9.9 mm; 2 — A. (A.) cupressi n. sp., holotype, male, 6.1 mm; 3 — A. (A.) cupressi n. sp., allotype, female, 7.1 mm; 4 — A. (A.) cupressi n. sp., paratype, male, 6.5 mm.

FIGURES 5 – 9. 5 — aedeagus of Anthaxia (Anthaxia) ulmi n. sp., holotype; 6 — the same, A. (A.) cupressi n. sp., holotype; 7 — male metatibia of A. (A.) ulmi n. sp., holotype; 8 — the same, A. (A.) cupressi n. sp., holotype; 9 — anal sternite of female of A. (A.) ulmi n. sp.