Melobasis brevis, Levey, 2012

Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, Zootaxa 3464, pp. 1-107 : 29-30

M. brevis sp. n.

(Figs. 98, 166, 213)

Type locality: W. Australia, Wurarga , Marloo sheep station (28°24'S 116°29'E) .

Type specimen examined. Holotype ♂ ( WAMA): 37–4496/7 Wurarga/ M. marlooensis /. My determination label . Paratypes as follows. Western Australia: 4 ♀ ( NMWC, TMSHC) Canegrass, 20.1.1937, on Acacia [ex. H.W. Brown coll.]

Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 10.5–12.0 mm; head brownish-bronze; pronotum brownish-bronze with an indigo reflection laterally; elytra yellowish-bronze with the apices reddish-purple, some of the specimens from Canegrass have faint indications of a red humeral vitta, sutural vitta and a small median macula; underside brownish-bronze with a reddish-purple reflections laterally; lateral parts of underside moderately densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence.

Head: upper third of vertex moderately densely punctured with small almost round punctures; remainder of head very densely punctured with ovate punctures which largely coalesce to form short linear series orientated dorso-ventrally on the lower half of the vertex and the frontoclypeus; moderately densely clothed with moderately long silvery pubescence; unpunctured areas weakly to moderately strongly microreticulate; clypeal excision shallow, U-shaped, with an unpunctured weakly microreticulate border; clypeal peaks slightly obtusely angled; vertex flat, slightly less than half width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes weakly convex.

Antenna: serrate from segment 4–10, the segments becoming progressively smaller and slightly less elongate, the expanded part of each segment more or less quadrate.

Pronotum: 1.62–1.77 times as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin moderately strongly bisinuate, with a very broad truncated median lobe; posterior margin bisinuate; widest at posterior angles; lateral margins slightly convergent for a short distance in front of the posterior angles before very slightly diverging to just beyond mid-length, then weakly curvilinearly converging to the anterior angles; as wide or very slightly narrower at base than elytra at base; lateral carina almost straight or slightly sinuate, about two-thirds to three-quarters complete; punctation moderately dense in central half, consisting of small round punctures, which become progressively larger and denser towards the lateral margin; with a narrow almost complete unpunctured midline; very weakly microreticulate with very tiny pin-prick punctures visible at high magnification between the large punctures; fairly densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence in lateral half.

Scutellum: almost quadrate, about one-tenth width of elytra at base.

Elytra: 1.98–2.06 times as long as wide at base; basal margin moderately strongly biarcuate; very slightly widening from base over the humeral callosities, thence almost parallel sided to the mid-length, before narrowing to the rounded apices; lateral margins from just beyond mid-length and apices with fairly coarse acute serrations, those at the apices being slightly smaller; sutural margin slightly raised in apical third; rather uniformly punctured but with traces of one or two costate intervals in the inner half; punctation in the inner half moderately dense, the punctures small and round, becoming denser, larger and slightly ovate laterally; weakly microreticulate.

Proepisternum: very densely punctured with moderately large, shallow, lunate punctures, partly obscured by dense long silvery pubescence.

Prosternum: without a bead at the anterior margin, the anterior margin at almost the same level as the area behind; prosternal process slightly widening distally, very sparsely punctured with pin-prick punctures, with a line of slightly larger punctures near the unpunctured lateral margin; glabrous.

Mesoepisternum: very densely punctured, with fairly small, shallow, variably shaped punctures; partly obscured by long silvery pubescence.

Apical sternite ( Fig. 213): with the lunate punctures coalescent, their rims forming ridges more or less parallel to the lateral margin over most of the surface, but turned in towards the midline distally; excision fairly deep, wider than deep, the distal margin of the flange straight, the spines strongly developed, as long as the depth of the flange in both sexes.

Tarsal claws: slightly widened at base but without a basal tooth.

Aedeagus ( Fig. 166): apex of median lobe obtusely pointed.

Comments. This species is closely related to M. burnsi sp. n. and it is possible it is only a form of that species which lacks distinct elytral markings. The aedeagus is very similar, but slightly different. Only more males will resolve this problem.

Etymology. This species is named from its relatively broad and short form.

Bionomics. Adult collected in January on Acacia (Fabaceae) . Larval hosts unknown.