Melobasis meyricki, Blackburn

Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, Zootaxa 3464, pp. 1-107 : 46-47

M. meyricki Blackburn

(Figs. 116, 177, 205)

Melobasis meyricki Blackburn 1887, p. 238 ; Kerremans 1892:105; 1903:160; Carter, 1923:80; 1929:285; Obenberger:1930:433; Bellamy 2002:157; 2008:1326.

Type locality: Western Australia (Geraldton?) .

Type specimens examined. Holotype ♂ ( BMNH) , Holotype / Type/ Blackburn Coll. 1910-236, Melobasis meyricki Blackb. / HOLOTYPE Melobasis meyricki Blackburn B. Levey det. 1990/ T 1710 written on the specimen card. [Blackburn’s notebook in BMNH gives the following information for T1710: W.A. (G.) 10-12/86] .

Other material examined. Western Australia: Coral Bay; 7m E. of Coral Bay; Geraldton; Kalbarri National Park; Perth; Red Bluff; Strawberry. Material examined from ANIC; BMNH; CLBC; DSVC; KECC; MVMA; NMWC; SAMA.

Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 11.3–13.4 mm; predominantly golden-green or reddish-copper with the lateral margin in apical third and apices of elytra of a deep purple or blackish-lilac colour; underside moderately densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence; elytral apices produced and slightly divergent.

Head: densely punctured with rather deep, fairly large round to ovate punctures which sometimes coalesce to form linear series orientated dorso-ventrally on the lower half of the vertex and the frontoclypeus; densely clothed with long silvery pubescence; unpunctured areas shiny to weakly microreticulate in ♀, strongly microreticulate in ♂; clypeal excision shallow, U-shaped, with a complete unpunctured strongly microreticulate border; clypeal peaks acute to right angled; vertex flat, slightly more than half the width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes strongly to very strongly 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 in ♂, in ♀ more or less triangular.

Pronotum: 1.46–1.55 times as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin bisinuate, usually with a slightly developed very broad median lobe, however, sometimes the lobe is scarcely produced and the margin is almost straight at the centre; anterior beaded margin rather wide; posterior margin bisinuate; widest at posterior angles or slightly wider just in front of mid-length; lateral margins slightly convergent for a short distance in front of posterior angles before slightly widening to widest point, or very slightly divergent from posterior angles to widest point, thence slightly to moderately strongly curvilinearly converging to the anterior angles; as wide as or very slightly narrower at base than elytra at base; lateral carina slightly sinuate, about half to three-quarters complete; punctation moderately dense to dense in central fifth, consisting of small round or transversely elliptical punctures, which become progressively larger and slightly denser towards the lateral margin; with at least a partly developed unpunctured midline; shiny or with weak reticulate microsculpture; moderately densely clothed with long silvery pubescence which extends to the centre of the pronotum.

Scutellum: approximately quadrate to slightly elongate; weakly microsculptured; about one-eleventh to onefourteenth width of elytra at base.

Elytra: 2.33–2.41 times as long as wide at the base; basal margin weakly bisinuate; very slightly widening from base over the humeral callosities; thence almost parallel sided to slightly beyond mid-length, before narrowing to the usually strongly attenuate narrowly rounded apices; sutural margins divergent near apices; lateral margins from just beyond mid-length and apices with very weak serrations, which are often only obvious on the attenuate apices; sutural margin strongly raised in apical third; elytra rather uniformly punctured, without costae or costate intervals, but sometimes with some longitudinal seriation in the punctation near the suture; densely punctured with small round punctures near the suture becoming progressively larger, denser and more ovate towards the lateral margin; weakly microreticulate.

Proepisternum: densely punctured with moderately large, fairly deep, ovate and round punctures, mostly obscured by dense long silvery pubescence.

Prosternum: with a narrow bead at the anterior margin, which is sometimes only developed laterally; prosternal process strongly widening distally, sparsely to moderately densely punctured with small round punctures, with a groove formed from coalescent punctures near the lateral margin; sparsely to moderately densely clothed with long silvery pubescence.

Mesoepisternum: densely punctured, with moderately large, shallow, ovate and lunate punctures; mostly obscured by long silvery pubescence.

Apical sternite ( Fig. 205): lunate punctures mostly separate, sometimes slightly coalescent near the lateral margin, but not forming grooves or ridges; in ♂ excision about three times as wide as deep, in ♀ about twice as wide as deep; the lateral spines scarcely developed; distal margin of flange straight.

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

Aedeagus ( Fig.177).

Ovipositor: short, about as long as wide.

Comments. This species is unlikely to confused with any other species; the absence of elytral markings, and the lack of grooves formed from the fusion of lunate punctures on the apical sternite will distinguish it from all other species of the formosa species-group except M. nudipectus sp. n., from which it is most readily distinguished in having the elytral apices produced and slightly divergent at the suture.

Bionomics. Adults collected late July–November on Acacia (Fabaceae) . Larval hosts unknown.