Melobasis regalis subsp. carnabyorum, Levey, 2012

Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, Zootaxa 3464, pp. 1-107 : 64-65

M. regalis carnabyorum ssp. n.

(Figs. 121, 190)

Type locality: Western Australia, 7 miles E. of Coral Bay .

Type specimens: Holotype ( ANIC) ♂ W. Australia: 7m. E. of Coral Bay , / near Cardabia, Minilya–Learmonth Rd. 1.ix.1974 / K. & E. Carnaby . Paratypes 1♂ same data as Holotype but 7.ix.1974, B. Levey ( NMWC) ; 2♂, 1♀ Coral Bay , W.A., 16.9.77. K. Carnaby ( GBC) .

Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 9.2–10.2 mm; head underside and legs reddish-purple or bronze-green with reddish-purple reflections, tarsi blue; pronotum broadly light green or golden-green in the midline, flanked by a pair of crimson or blue-black admedian vittae, which become much narrower anteriorly, and are narrowly edged laterally by the same colour as that of the midline; lateral half deep reddish-violet; ground colour of elytra crimson, sometimes partly suffused with greenish-blue, with the following golden-green markings: a sutural vitta in the basal third, which extends narrowly or broadly along the basal margin to join a very broad irregular elongate vitta extending from the basal margin to the apical sixth; head and underside moderately densely clothed with moderately long opaque white pubescence.

Head: densely to very densely punctured with small round to ovate punctures; densely clothed with moderately long opaque white pubescence; unpunctured areas microreticulate; clypeal excision very shallow, U-shaped, with a fairly broad unpunctured microreticulate border, much wider in the middle; clypeal peaks right angled; vertex flat, about half the width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes strongly convex.

Antenna: serrate from segment 4–10, in ♂ the expanded part of segment 4 almost quadrate, segments 5–10 quadrate, ♀ not examined.

Pronotum: 1.41–1.44 times as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin strongly bisinuate with a well developed broad median lobe, the unpunctured anterior border narrow, but well defined at centre, separated by a well defined groove from the rest of the pronotum; posterior margin weakly bisinuate; widest at or slightly in front of mid-length, parallel sided for a very short distance in front of the basal angles, thence rather strongly divergent to the widest point, before rather strongly curvilinearly converging to the apical angles; slightly narrower than elytra at base; lateral carina half to three-quarters complete, slightly sinuate near basal angle; narrowly depressed in the midline sometimes with an incomplete narrowly unpunctured midline, or the punctures denser in the midline depression; punctation of the green midline region consisting of dense, small round punctures, punctation of the dark admedian vittae generally less dense and weaker, punctation lateral to the admedian vittae very dense to contiguous, the punctures much larger and stronger; shiny to weakly microreticulate between the punctures and with very minute pin-prick punctures as well; lateral third clothed with moderately dense moderately long opaque white pubescence.

Scutellum: shield-shaped or ovate, about one-sixteenth width of elytra at base; weakly microreticulate.

Elytra: basal margin weakly bisinuate; very slightly widening over the humeral callosities, thence almost parallel sided to just beyond the mid-length, before narrowing to the sub-acute apices; lateral margins in apical half and apices with small, mainly acute serrations; sutural margins raised in the apical half to two-thirds; moderately densely punctured with small round punctures in the subsutural depression, with a costate, very sparsely punctured interval adjacent to the subsutural depression; punctation lateral to the costate interval very dense to contiguous, the punctures much larger and stronger than those of the subsutural depression.

Proepisternum: contiguously punctured with rather small, shallow almost round punctures, mostly obscured by moderately long opaque white pubescence.

Prosternum: anterior margin at centre without a bead, sometimes with a narrow bead laterally; posterior part of prosternum slightly depressed relative to the anterior part of the prosternum; prosternal process slightly widening from base, sparsely to moderately densely punctured with small round punctures, sometimes with a line of contiguous, but not coalescent punctures close to the lateral margin.

Mesoepisternum: shiny or very weakly microreticulate with a few large shallow setae-bearing punctures along the anterior margin.

Apical sternite: with small lunate punctures, mostly well separated, but sometimes touching near the lateral margin to form short transverse series; ♂ excision shallow U-shaped about 2 times as wide as deep; ♀ excision not examined; the distal margin of the flange straight, lateral spines short or very short, much shorter than the depth of the flange.

Tarsal claws: slightly widened at base.

Aedeagus ( Fig. 190): rather narrow, gradually widening from base to beyond mid-length.

Ovipositor: not examined.

Comments. This very distinct subspecies is not likely to be confused with any other known species, although in the field could be mistaken for some colour forms of M. g. gloriosa . It can be distinguished from this species by its opaque white pubescence (not translucent silvery pubescence) and the thin straight mid tibia of the male (not swollen, with a setae filled depression on the underside).

Etymology. This subspecies was called M. carnabyi and imaged in Carnaby (1987:58), but not formally described. This subspecies is named after the late Keith and Edie Carnaby who generously allowed me to accompany them on a collecting trip up the west coast of Australia in 1974.

Bionomics: Adults collected in September. Larval hosts unknown.