Brachys consimilis Hespenheide

Hespenheide, Henry A., 2015, Striking New Species ofBrachysDejean, 1833 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico, The Coleopterists Bulletin 69 (2), pp. 221-224 : 223-224

Brachys consimilis Hespenheide , new species

Description. Holotype female: Narrowly obovate, rounded truncate and medially emarginate in front and behind; head, pronotum, scutellum, and venter black, moderately shiny, with reddish coppery reflections on head and pronotum, anterior 2/3 and apices of elytra blue, reddish purple along suture, oval coppery area on posterior 1/3 extending to lateral margin and angled anteriorad; head nearly glabrous with inconspicuous sparse, silvery setae along midline and on vertex; pronotum nearly glabrous along midline at base, on disc and anterior margin, sparsely covered with silvery setae in basal depression and along lateral margins; elytra with inconspicuous setae along anterior margin and on raised ridges, coppery area with dense coppery setae; ventral surface with uniform sparse short, inconspicuous setae, longer sparse, silvery setae along posterior margin of terminal ventrite; 4.35 mm long, 2.15 mm wide. Head: Width 1.30 mm, produced and rounded interior to eyes, strongly depressed along midline, more broadly so between eyes on ventral 1/2; epistomal width 1/4 of distance between inner margins of eyes. Pronotum: Strongly convex at anterior margin in cross-section, nearly flat in lateral view, transversely depressed along base lateral to midline, widest at base, sides nearly straight to apical angles; prehumeral carinae moderately strong, about 1/2 length of pronotum at middle; surface ocellate punctate. Scutellum triangular, about 2X wider than long. Elytra: Subequal to pronotum at base, wider at middle than at base and weakly emarginate between; elytral apices narrowly separately rounded, humeri prominent; each elytron with weak depressions along base interior to humerus and in coppery area, and carinate along lateral margin 3/5 of length only to anterior edge of coppery area; surface with weak ridges equidistant from and interior to lateral carina and suture on basal 1/2, finely punctate and shagreened on disk in blue area, surface densely micropunctate and granular in coppery area. Venter: Faintly, inconspicuously shagreened and ocellate punctate, punctures open behind on abdominal ventrites. Apex of terminal abdominal ventrite broadly rounded truncate with 16 short deflexed subequal blunt teeth.

Holotype. Mexico: Sonora, Hwy 16, km 339, 03.08.2007, D. Furth ( CSCA).

Etymology. The name refers to its similarity to B. rileyi .

Discussion. This species is superficially very similar to B. rileyi and is therefore not figured separately; in fact, before I examined the Texas specimens and only saw the photograph ( Fig. 1), I thought it was conspecific. Brachys consimilis differs from B. rileyi most obviously in having incomplete lateral carinae on the elytra; additionally, in B. consimilis the elytra are darker in coloration with two weak ridges on the disc and have separately rounded apices, the pronotum is reddish coppery and has the basal, transverse depression interrupted at the middle, and the head has dorsal, rounded protuberances.