Melobasis fritzbrechteli, Levey, 2023

Levey, Brian, 2023, A revision of the Australian species of the genus Melobasis Laporte & Gory 1837 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Part 3 (Revision of the azureipennis, cupricollis, iridicolor and melanura species groups), Zootaxa 5302 (1), pp. 1-100 : 94-98

M. fritzbrechteli sp. n.

( Figs 184, 186 , 190, 191 , 194, 195 )

Type locality: 10 km NW Dunmarra, Buchanan Highway , Northern Territory .

Type specimens examined. Holotype ♁ ( ANIC) Australia NT 10 km NW Dunmarra Buch. Hw. [Buchanan Highway] 30.1.18 leg Brechtel / HOLOTYPE ♁ Melobasis fritzbrechteli sp. n. B. Levey 2020. Paratypes as follows: 38 ♁, 23 ♀ ( ANIC, BLC, BMNH, FBC, NMGW) same data as holotype but various dates: 22.1.18, 28.1.18, 29.1.18, 30.1.18. 1 ♁ ( BLC) W. Australia, Lake King. [almost certainly an incorrect locality label (M. Hanlon pers. comm.)] 14.1.1971. 253. K.& E. Carnaby; 1 ♀ ( TMSHC) Broome N.W. Australia Feb. 1947 on [unreadable] blossom H.W. Brown; 1 ♁ ( MVMA) Stapleton, N. Terr. G.F. Hill .

Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 5.6–7.7 mm; head in ♁ silvery green or coppery; ♀ bluish-green with lower margin of frontoclypeus sometimes coppery; pronotum golden green or reddish copper, with a median vitta in the central quarter to third, bluish-green or reddish-purple; elytra variably reddish-purple, bluish-violet or bluish-green; underside in ♁ green or golden green, in ♀ emerald green to bluish-green, almost glabrous, with inconspicuous very short silvery setae on lateral parts of metaventrite and metepisternum.

Head ( Fig. 186 ): in ♁ very densely to contiguously punctate with very small strong round punctures, densely clothed with moderately long silvery pubescence; in ♀ densely punctate with much weaker punctures, more sparsely clothed with silvery pubescence; clypeal excision very shallow arcuate, with a fairly broad, reticulate, impunctate border; clypeal peaks poorly developed, obtuse angled; clypeal angles not developed; vertex flat, about half width of head across eyes, when viewed from above; eyes strongly convex.

Antenna: not sexually dimorphic; segment 3 slightly triangularly expanded, segment 4 triangularly expanded, segments 5–10 with expansion subquadrate.

Pronotum: 1.58–1.79× as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin moderately bisinuate with a weakly to moderately developed median lobe, with a narrow beaded margin; posterior margin weakly biarcuate; widest at hind angles; lateral margins parallel or weakly rectilinearly converging to midlength, often with a slight sinuation just in front of hind angles, before very weakly almost rectilinearly converging to apical angles; basal angles acute; as wide at base as elytra at base; lateral carina almost straight, about two-thirds to three-quarters complete; punctation in central quarter to third, very sparse, consisting of pin-prick and tiny round punctures; punctation in lateral two-thirds to three-quarters, dense to very dense, consisting of large, rather weak, shallow, slightly ovate and round punctures; spaces between punctures imperceptibly to weakly microreticulate; often with a partial or complete impunctate median line; glabrous, or with very few, very short silvery setae near the lateral margin.

Scutellum: quadrate to slightly elongate, almost rectangular, about one-fifteenth to one-seventeenth width of elytra at base; microreticulate.

Elytra: 2.08–2.15× as long as wide at base; basal margin weakly bisinuate; basal angles well defined slightly acute or right angled, slightly widening from baseal angles over the humeral callosities thence parallel sided to midlength, before narrowing to the apices; lateral margins from midlength and apices serrate, with rather widely spaced acute serrations, about 15–16 serrations between midlength of elytra and suture, the most apical serration often larger than the others, spine like; sutural margins very slightly raised in apical half; punctation almost entirely arranged in regular longitudinal rows, consisting of small round punctures in inner two-thirds, punctures in lateral third slightly larger and tranversely ovate; interstriae weakly microreticulate and with scattered barely discernible micropunctures, alternate interstriae sometimes slightly costate.

Hypomeron: contiguously punctate with large, extremely shallow ovate punctures, with sparse exceedingly short silvery pubescence, bottom of punctures microreticulate.

Prosternum: with a broad bead at the anterior margin; the anterior margin at the same level as the area behind, central third, very sparsely punctate with small round and pin-prick punctures; prosternal process slightly widening distally, almost as wide as long at widest point very sparsely punctate with tiny round and pin-prick punctures, with a row of larger punctures close to the lateral margin, glabrous.

Mesanepisternum: microreticulate and moderately densely punctate with very small punctures of variable shape.

Central part metaventrite, inner part of metacoxa, central part of abdominal ventrites glabrous, more sparsely and weakly punctate than lateral parts of these structures which are moderately densely punctate with lunate punctures, with sparse very short, inconspicuous silvery pubescence.

Apical ventrite ( Figs 190, 191 ): lunate punctures well separated over the whole surface; excision in ♁ broad, shallow, with a wide straight flange occupying half the depth of the excision, with moderately long, slightly divergent, lateral spines ( Fig. 190 ); ♀ narrower, proportionally deeper, the flange with two spine like projections, the lateral spines longer, slightly divergent ( Fig. 191 ).

Fore tibia: strongly curved, with a slightly developed setal brush on the anterior face in the apical half, with a series of small teeth on the ventral face, in ♁; tibia in ♀ strongly curved but without teeth on the ventral face.

Mid tibia: moderately strongly curved, with a series of small teeth on the ventral face in ♁; in ♀ more weakly curved, without teeth on the ventral face.

Tarsal claws appendiculate with a large sharply pointed tooth at the base.

Aedeagus ( Figs 194, 195 ): parameres with lateral margins strongly curved, the apical setae bearing part small, roughly triangular, with a few backwardly directed spine like setae at the base, in addition to the usual long fine setae; median lobe gradually attenuated at apex, the tip truncate.

Ovipositor: about 1.5× as long as wide at widest point

Comments: This species based on the form of the aedeagus, the strongly toothed tarsal claws, and the unusual bifurcate development of the flange of the excision of the apical ventrite in the female, is clearly very closely related to M. azureipennis . The bicoloured pronotum, and the wide straight flange of the excision of the apical ventrite in the male of M. fritzbrechteli sp. n., are the main distinguishing features from M. azureipennis .

Etymology. This species is named for Fritz Brechtel, in recognition of his assiduous collecting in an area little visited by entomologists.

Bionomics. Adults collected in January on Hibiscus (Malvaceae) [Fritz Brechtel pers. com.]. Larval host unknown.

Figures

FIGURES 184–187. 184–185 dorsal habitus: Scale bars = 5.0 mm.184. M. fritzbrechteli sp. n. (holotype J); 185. M. azureipennis Macleay (Mareeba, Q. ANIC); 186–187 head: Scale bars = 1.0 mm.186. M. fritzbrechteli sp. n. (holotype J); 187. M. azureipennis Macleay (Mareeba, Q. ANIC).

FIGURES 188–191. apical ventrite: 188. M. azureipennis Macleay (J (Mareeba, Q. ANIC); 189. M. azureipennis Macleay (♀ Mareeba, Q. ANIC); 190. M. fritzbrechteli sp. n. (♁ paratype 10 km N.W. Dunmarra Buchanan Highway. BLC); 191. M. fritzbrechteli sp. n. (♀ paratype 10 km N.W. Dunmarra Buchanan Highway. BLC). Scale bars = 1.0 mm.

FIGURES 192–195. aedeagus & apex of parameres: 192–193. M. azureipennis Macleay (Mareeba, Q. ANIC); 194–195. M. fritzbrechteli sp. n. (paratype 10 km N.W. Dunmarra Buchanan Highway. BLC). Scale bars of aedeagus = 1.0 mm; scale bars for apex of parameres = 0.5 mm.