Buprestis propinqua subsp. depressa, Levey, 2012

Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, Zootaxa 3464, pp. 1-107 : 59-60

M. propinqua depressa ssp. n.

(Figs. 123, 152, 180)

Type locality: Western Australia, 48 km E. of Yellowdine.

Type specimens examined. Holotype ♂ ( WAMA) 48 km E. of Yellowdine, W.A., T.M. Hanlon & M. Powell, 21 October 2005, on Otion sp. flowers / HOLOTYPE Melobasis propinqua depressa ssp. n. B. Levey det.

8 paratypes as follows: 4♂, 1♀, ( NMWC, TMHC) same data as Holotype ; 1♂, 2♀, ( NMWC, TMHC) GHO; 15 km W. of Yellowdine, W.A., M. Hanlon & M. Powell, 20 October 2005, on Urodon sp. flowers .

Diagnosis. General Diagnosis: length 10.5–12.7 mm; elytra golden-green to coppery, except for the apices which are narrowly reddish-violet or violet; pronotum golden-green laterally, central third more or less extensively reddish-purple except for the midline which is narrowly golden-green; underside pinkish-purple head and underside densely clothed with moderately long opaque white pubescence.

Head: densely punctured with rather deep round and ovate punctures, with a tendency to form contiguous longitudinal series on the lower part of the vertex; densely clothed with moderately long opaque white pubescence; unpunctured areas shiny to weakly microreticulate; clypeal excision very shallow, U-shaped, with a complete shiny or weakly microreticulate unpunctured border; clypeal peaks right angled; vertex flat, about half width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes strongly convex.

Antenna: serrate from segment 4–10, the segments becoming progressively smaller and slightly less elongate; in the ♀ the expanded part of the segments is more or less triangular, in the ♂ segment 4 is more or less triangular, 5–10 more or less quadrate

Pronotum: 1.35–1.56 times as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin strongly bisinuate with a well developed broad median lobe, the unpunctured anterior border moderately broad to broad, with a well defined groove separating it from the rest of the pronotum; posterior margin moderately strongly biarcuate to bisinuate; widest at or slightly in front of mid-length; lateral margins parallel sided or slightly convergent close to the posterior angles, thence weakly divergent to the widest point, before strongly curvilinearly converging to the anterior angles; as wide as or slightly narrower at base than elytra at base; lateral carina almost straight or slightly sinuate, about half to two-thirds complete; punctation in central half moderately dense to dense, consisting mostly of small round punctures, the punctures in the central line slightly denser; punctation in lateral half consisting of larger stronger very dense to contiguous round punctures; very weakly microreticulate between the punctures; with fairly short opaque white pubescence mostly confined to the vicinity of the lateral carina.

Scutellum: approximately quadrate, more or less shield-shaped; about one-fifteenth width of elytra at base; weakly to moderately strongly microreticulate.

Elytra: basal margin moderately strongly biarcuate to bisinuate; not or only very slightly widening over the humeral callosities, almost parallel sided to somewhat beyond the mid-length, before narrowing to the moderately broad rounded apices; lateral margins in apical third to half, and apices weakly, but noticeably serrate; sutural margins weakly raised in the apical quarter to half; densely punctured with round punctures near the suture, becoming slightly larger and denser laterally, often contiguous close to the lateral margin; punctures near the subsutural depression sometimes partly seriate, however interstriae not costate; punctation of subsutural depression not obviously weaker than the other punctation; weakly microreticulate.

Proepisternum: very densely to contiguously punctured with large shallow round to ovate setae-bearing punctures, partly obscured by long opaque white setae.

Prosternum: with a poorly defined narrow bead at the anterior margin, at about the same level as the area behind; prosternal process slightly widening posteriorly, sparsely to moderately densely punctured with small round punctures, without a line of partly coalescent punctures close to the lateral margin; sparsely to densely clothed with fairly long opaque white pubescence.

Mesoepisternum: microreticulate, with some to many large shallow setae-bearing punctures present, partly obscured by the long opaque white setae.

Apical sternite: with small lunate punctures, mostly well separated, but sometimes touching to form short transverse series; ♂ excision shallow about 2-3 times as wide as deep, ♀ excision narrower about 2 times as wide as deep, the distal margin of the flange straight and the lateral spines very short, not as long as the depth of the flange in both sexes.

Tarsal claws: slightly widened at base.

Aedeagus ( Fig. 180).

Ovipositor: elongate as in Fig. 11.

Comments. This subspecies differs from the other subspecies in the following ways: pronotum slightly less flattened laterally; centre of pronotum contrastingly coloured to the rest of the pronotum; slightly broader and better defined anterior border of the pronotum and the more uniform sized punctation of the elytra. It shares with some specimens of the eastern Australian M. p. propinqua the denser punctation in the midline of the pronotum, which is not seen in the other subspecies.

Bionomics. Adults have been collected in October on Urodon sp. (Fabaceae) flowers and Otion sp. ( Fabaceae ) flowers. Larval hosts unknown.