Melobasis azureipennis, Macleay, 1872

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 : 91-94

M. azureipennis Macleay

( Figs 185, 187 , 188, 189 , 192, 193 )

Melobasis azureipennis Macleay 1872:240 ; Kerremans 1885:136; Masters 1886:93; Kerremans 1892:104; 1903:159; Carter 1923:81; 1929:284; Obenberger 1930:430; Brooks 1948:29 (as M. cyaneipennis Boheman ) Bellamy 2002:150; 2008:1320; Hawkeswood 2011:6 (as M. cyaneipennis Boheman ); Bellamy et al. 2013:57 (as M. cyaneipennis Boheman ). Stat. rev. (not syn. of Melobasis cyaneipennis Boheman 1858:59 . I examined the holotype of M. cyaneipennis in 1973 (in NHRS) and it is a species of Nesotrinchus Obenberger , probably N. coeruleipennis (Fairmaire 1877) .

Type locality: Gayndah , Queensland .

Melobasis aureipennis Thomson 1879:22 ; Kerremans 1900:296; 1903:159; Carter 1923:81; 1929:284; Obenberger 1930:430; Bellamy 2002:150; 2008:1320.

Type locality: Australia .

Type specimens examined. Melobasis azureipennis Macleay Lectotype here designated ♁ ( AMSA) K32113 / Melobasis azureipennis McL. W. Gayndah / Holotype. [2 ♀ ( AMSA) with same registration number but no locality label may be part of the original type series, but since specimens from two localities are registered under that number, I have not made them paralectotypes. There were two very badly damaged specimens in MMSA from Gayndah which might be part of the original type series].

Melobasis aureipennis Thomson Holotype ♀ ( MNHN) Th. Type/ aureipennis Th. Type Ap. 1. 22 azureipennis Laf. m.s.s./ Ex. Musaeo James Thomson.

Other specimens examined. Queensland: Bamaga; Ban Ban Range, via Coalstoun Lakes; Biloela; Bowen; Brisbane; Bundaberg, 64 km N.; Cairns; Carnarvon Range; Coen River, Cook Town; Dawson District; Dawson River; Duaringa; Edungalba; Endeavour River; Gayndah; Gladstone; Glen Aplin; Gordonvale; Greenbank; Hann Tbid, 16.48S 145.12E; Jandowae; Mareeba; Maryborough; Meringa; Milmerran; Petrie; Port Denison; Rockhampton; Stanthorpe; Townsville; Watalgan Range, 24.45’S 152.03E; Westwood; Wide Bay; Yepoon. Specimens in AMSA, ANIC, ASC, BLC, BMNH, BPBM, CLBC, GHNC, IRSNB, MVMA, NMPC, QMA, SAMA, WAMA.

Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 6.1–9.4 mm; head in ♁ silvery green, green or coppery; ♀ emerald green or bluish-green, sometimes with the frontoclypeus coppery; pronotum entirely reddish copper; elytra variably blackish-volet, bluish-violet or bluish-green; underside in ♁ emerald green, the abdominal ventrites sometimes extensively violet blue in ♀ bluish-green or violet blue, ♁ sparsely clothed with short silvery setae over most of the underside, with denser longer pubescence on the prosternum, prosternal process, mesosternum, metaventrite and ventral faces of femora, ♀ entirely sparsely clothed with short silvery setae.

Head ( Fig. 187 ): in ♁ contiguously punctate with very small strong round punctures, very densely clothed with moderately long silvery pubescence; in ♀ very densely punctate with weaker punctures, more sparsely clothed with silvery pubescence; clypeal excision very shallow arcuate, with a fairly broad, shiny or 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: 1.60–1.78× 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 three-quarters to four-fifths complete; punctation in central third, sparse to moderately dense, consisting of tiny round punctures; punctation in lateral two-thirds to three-quarters, very dense, consisting of large, rather weak, shallow, round punctures; spaces between punctures moderately strongly microreticulate; sometimes with an incomplete 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-fourteenth to one-seventeenth width of elytra at base; microreticulate.

Elytra: 2.02–2.16× 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 acute serrations, about 18–20 serrations between midlength of elytra and suture, the most apical serration sometimes larger than the others; sutural margins very slightly raised in apical half; punctation mostly arranged in regular longitudinal rows, consisting of small round punctures in inner two-thirds, punctures in lateral third slightly larger and tranversely ovate, sometimes regular longitudinal rows indistinguishable near the lateral margin; interstriae moderately strongly microreticulate and with scattered barely discernible micropunctures, interstriae often 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; prosternal process slightly widening distally, almost as wide as long at widest point moderately densely punctate with small round punctures, in ♁ slightly depressed relative to the centre of the prosternum, moderately densely clothed with short to moderately long silvery pubescence, in ♀ not depressed, glabrous.

Mesanepisternum: mircoreticulate and 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 188, 189 ): lunate punctures well separated over the whole surface; excision in ♁ broad, shallow, with the flange produced at the centre has a broadly rounded or almost rectangular lobe, with moderately long, slightly divergent, lateral spines ( Fig. 188 ); ♀ narrower, the flange with two spine like projections, the lateral spines slightly longer, slightly divergent

( Fig. 189 ).

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 192, 193 ): 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 gradally attenuated at apex, the tip truncate.

Ovipositor: not examined.

Comments: The main distinguishing features from M. fritzbrechteli sp. n., are the unicoloured pronotum, and the form of the flange excision of the apical ventrite in the male, which is produced at the centre as a broadly rounded or almost rectangular lobe.

Bionomics. Adults collected from October to April, most records from December to January. Adults collected on Triumfetta rhomboidea and Grewia latifolia (Malvaceae) . 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.