Melobasis regalis subsp. regalis, regalis Carter

Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, Zootaxa 3464, pp. 1-107 : 62-64

M. regalis regalis Carter

(Figs. 120, 189)

Melobasis regalis Carter 1923:79 , 97: 1929:285; Obenberger 1930:434; Bellamy, 2002:162; 2008:1331. Type locality: Western Australia, Albany.

Type specimen examined. Holotype ( BMNH) ♂? Albany Brewer/ Saunders.74.18/ TYPE H.J.C./ Melobasis / regalis / Carter.

Other specimens examined. Western Australia: Beverley; Clackline; Cunderdin; Eneabba; Lake Grace; Marloo Station, Wurarga; Mullewa; Murchison; Nerrin Nerrin Station; Paynes Find, 5km S.; Peak Charles National Park; Pumphrey’s Bridge, 12.4 km S.; Spencers Brook; Yellowdine.

Specimens examined from ANIC, CLBC, IRSNB, MVMA, NMWC, SAMA, SBC, WAMA, ZMHB.

Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 9.0–14.0 mm; head, underside and legs except for tarsi, brownish- or greenish-bronze with coppery reflections; tarsi blue or green; pronotum broadly blue-green, golden-green or coppery in the midline, flanked by a pair of broad reddish-copper, blue-black or blackish-purple admedian vittae, which become narrower anteriorly and are sometimes narrowly edged laterally by the same colour as that of the midline; lateral half grey-bronze or violet-blue; elytra dark bluish-green, deep reddish-violet or violet with the following green, golden-green, golden or reddish-copper markings: a sutural vitta in basal third, a broad slightly sinuate vitta just internal of the humeral callosity in basal third, which narrowly extends along the basal margin to the epipleura; a variably shaped median fascia, not reaching the suture or the lateral margins, but sometimes extended towards the base for a short distance at its lateral edge, and sometimes also extending towards the base at its sutural edge to join the sutural vitta; a large elongate pre-apical macula; 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 shiny to weakly microreticulate; clypeal excision very shallow, U-shaped, with a fairly broad unpunctured microreticulate border, sometimes wider in the middle; clypeal peaks slightly acute to right angled; vertex flat, slightly less than 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, in ♀ segments slightly less quadrate, segments 4 and 5 sometimes almost triangular.

Pronotum: 1.41–1.58 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 midlength, parallel sided for a very short distance in front of the basal angles, thence weakly divergent to the widest point, before weakly curvilinearly converging to the apical angles; as wide as or very slightly narrower than elytra at base; lateral carina half to three-quarters complete, sinuate near basal angle; usually narrowly depressed in the midline sometimes with an incomplete narrowly unpunctured midline, or the punctures denser in the midline depression; punctation of the coppery 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 pinprick punctures as well; lateral third clothed with moderately dense moderately long opaque white pubescence.

Scutellum: more or less shield-shaped, about one-fourteenth to one-sixteenth width of elytra at base; weakly microreticulate.

Elytra: basal margin weakly bisinuate; not or very slightly widening over the humeral callosities, thence almost parallel sided to just beyond the mid-length, before narrowing to the narrowly rounded to 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; sparsely to moderately densely punctured with very small round punctures in the subsutural depression, with some short sections of seriate punctation and one or two slightly costate very sparsely punctured interstriae in the inner half; punctation in lateral half dense to very dense, the punctures much larger and stronger than those of the inner half.

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 a poorly defined narrow bead laterally; posterior part of prosternum and prosternal process often depressed relative to the anterior part of the prosternum; prosternal process moderately 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, mirror like, sometimes with sparse tiny inconspicuous punctures at centre, and 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 2–4 times as wide as deep; ♀ excision narrower about 1.5–2 times as wide as deep, the distal margin of the flange straight, lateral spines short or very short, much shorter than the depth of the flange in both sexes.

Tarsal claws: slightly widened at base.

Aedeagus ( Fig. 189): rather narrow, gradually widening from base to beyond mid-length.

Ovipositor: not examined.

Comments. In the field this species might be mistaken for some forms of M. g. gloriosa (Laporte & Gory) with similar markings, but can be distinguished by its obvious opaque white pubescence, in contrast to the inconspicuous translucent silvery pubescence in M. g. gloriosa , and the thin only slightly curved mid tibia of the male, in contrast to the strongly curved and swollen tibia in male M. g. gloriosa .

Bionomics: Adults collected from September to December. Adults collected on Mirbelia seorsifolia (F. Muell.) , ( Fabaceae ). Larval hosts unknown.