Uracanthus griseus, Thongphak & Wang, 2007

Thongphak, Duangrat & Wang, Qiao, 2007, Taxonomic revision of the longicorn beetle genus Uracanthus Hope 1833 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae: Uracanthini) from Australia., Zootaxa 1569 (1569), pp. 1-139 : 16-17

Uracanthus griseus , sp. nov.

(Figs 22, 61, 94)

Description

Male. Body length, 23.51–27.95 mm; width, 4.69–5.86 mm.

Colour (Fig. 22). Head, thorax, legs, antennae, and base of elytra blackish brown; abdomen and remaining part of elytra reddish brown. Head with dense white pubescence except median frontal groove and a longitudinal glabrous area on vertex. Pronotum with 2 longitudinal stripes of dense white pubescence on each side: 1 narrow on disc and 1 wide near ventral side; remaining part of pronotum covered with short white pubes- cence, pubescence on middle disc sparser. Each elytron with a blackish, subtriangular, more or less glabous mark, extending from shoulder to basal 1/3, margined with a very vague line of white pubescence; anterior region of mark usually covered with sparse short white pubescence; remaining part of elytral disc with fairly dense mixture of short white and pale golden pubescence; apical area with relatively sparse white pubescence. Meso- and metasterna, abdomen, and legs covered with dense white pubescence.

Head. Postclypeus semicircular and slightly convex, with dense coarse punctures; frontoclypeal suture deep and wide in middle; distance between lower lobes of eyes 1.52–1.82 × as long as distance between upper lobes of eyes; distance between upper lobes of eyes 1.06–1.10 × as long as distance between eyes on ventral side; genal length 0.43–0.55 × as long as head width immediately below eyes. Antennae slightly longer than body; segments 4–10 slightly flattened and produced on one side at apex; apical ¼ of segment 11 distinctly thinner than basal ¾.

Thorax and abdomen. Pronotum 1.15–1.29 × as long as width, with a distinct process at each side; posterior margin 1.11–1.19 × as wide as anterior margin; pronotal disc binodulose in middle and rugose transversely near anterior and posterior margin. Scutellum semicircular, with dense pubescence. Elytra 4.09–4.63 × as long as prothorax and 3.35–3.71 × as long as shoulder width; each elytron with 3 feeble longitudinal carinae; basal elytra finely punctate and smooth; apex widely emarginated and bispinose. Apex of terminal sternite truncate.

Male terminalia. Apex of ventral median lobe distinctly emarginate and apex of dorsal lobe pointed; ventral lobe longer than dorsal lobe; spined region of internal sac 5.12–5.23 × as long as basal unspined region; spined region divided into 2 sections with an unspined gap between sections: first section with dense long simple spines; second section with sparse simple spines ( Fig. 61a). Eighth sternite strongly obliquely truncate at sides, strongly emarginate at apex, with long and fairly long setae arising terminally; ventral surface with cloud-like processes ( Fig. 61b). Eighth tergite rounded to slightly pointed at apex, with fairly dense short simple spines and multi-branched spines on dorsal surface ( Fig. 61c). Paramere long, 1.86–2.04 × as long as wide, cylindrical in shape, apex rounded with long and short setae ( Fig. 61d).

Female. Unknown.

Distribution Northern Victoria and southern South Australia ( Fig. 94).

Biology Hosts are unknown. Adults were collected in October and November.

Comments

This new species closely resembles U. perthensis sp. nov. but differs in having darker body colour; apical spines of elytra shorter and thicker.

Material examined

Holotype. ♂. SA: Marray River , H. S. Cape; bearing a red holotype label ( SAM).

Paratypes. 6 ♂. All paratypes bear blue paratype labels. VIC: 5 ♂, 7.3 km SW of Wemen , 25.x–3.xi.1988, T. Weir, J. Lawrence & M. Hansen ( ANIC) ; 1 ♂, Yanacy , 5xi.1978, J. C. Le Sovef ( ANIC) .