Ceresium gracilipes Fairmaire, 1881

Waqa-Sakiti, Hilda, Winder, Linton & Lingafelter, Steven W., 2015, Review of the genus Ceresium Newman, 1842 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) in Fiji, ZooKeys 532, pp. 15-53 : 20-21

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Cerambycidae

Ceresium gracilipes Fairmaire, 1881 Fig. 4

Ceresium gracilipes : Fairmaire 1881: 473, Fiji: Ovalau, lectotype (MNHN).

Description.

Based on photograph of lectotype (MNHN) and redescription of Dillon and Dillon (1952). Size 4.0-8.5 mm long, 0.7-1.5 mm wide at humeri; elongate-oblong, slender, convex; head and pronotum medium reddish brown, elytra testaceous, laterally darker and with a narrow indistinct fascia behind middle darker; entirely covered with thin pale-fulvous pubescence, which is moderately long; abdomen testaceous (Fig. 4a). Legs testaceous, femora on apical half darker with pubescence as above, antennae slightly darker with slightly longer pubescence. Head very coarsely, roughly punctuate. Antennae extending beyond half times body length; scape short reaching to apex of pronotum, robust, gradually thickened apically, coarsely punctuate, antennomere 3 slightly shorter than scape, antennomere 4 shorter than 3rd; 5th longer than 3rd, remaining gradually shorter.

Pronotum feebly elongate; base and apex subequal; sides distinctly arcuate, apical sulcus very broad and shallow; an elongate narrow, median callosity at base; disk slightly less coarsely punctuate than head. Elytra with sides nearly parallel to apical quarter, apices slightly, narrowly rounded, entire disk coarsely, densely rugose. Scutellum broadly rounded, sparsely pubescent with an indistinct, dark macula postmedially. Legs moderate in length, femora moderately clavate with hind femora extending well before elytral apex.

Venter with pubescence unexamined. Prosternum very narrow between procoxae and broadly expanded apically. Mesosternum process wide and strongly expanded at apex, apical margin subtruncate, angle fitting into grooves in mesocoxae; mesocoxae subcontiguous. Fifth sternite attenuate, apical margin strongly emarginate in male; subtruncate in female.

Remarks.

This species is recognized by the relatively narrow, parallel-sided appearance and elytra with an indistinct, postmedial dark macula that extends toward the base. It is distinguished from the similar Ceresium olidum (Fairmaire) by having the elytra more finely punctate and the pronotum less regularly and densely punctate. This species is endemic to Fiji and known from Viti Levu, Taveuni, Ovalau, and the Lau Islands where it has been collected by beating shrubs from August through November ( Dillon and Dillon 1952).