Agrilaxia (Agrilaxia) cacao, Bílý & Brûlé, 2013

Bílý, Svatopluk & Brûlé, Stéphane, 2013, A study on the genus Agrilaxia of French Guiana (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Anthaxiini), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 53 (2), pp. 657-686 : 664-667

Agrilaxia (Agrilaxia) cacao sp. nov.

( Fig. 1 )

Type locality. French Guiana, Route de Cacao.

Type specimen. HOLOTYPE ( NMPC, ♀): “ Route de Cacao , PK7, 23.viii.2005, piège Malaise // Ex coll. P.-H. Dalens, coll. Brûlé, No GF 0137”.

Diagnosis. Medium-sized (7.2 mm), rather stout, lustrous, non-prognathous, moderately convex; dorsal surface tricolorous: head black, clypeus, border between frons and vertex and narrow stripes along inner margins of eyes blue-green, pronotum golden green with two, large, black, longitudinal spots reaching both anterior and posterior pronotal margins, elytra dark violet with golden green humeri and large circumscutellar triangle and with narrow, golden green sutural stripe reaching elytral apex; ventral surface black with strong coppery reflections, laterosternites coppery-red; antennae and legs black with strong green lustre; entire body asetose.

Description of female holotype. Head large, somewhat wider than anterior pronotal margin; clypeus transverse, anterior margin deeply, widely emarginate; frons deeply, widely grooved medially; vertex grooved, 1.2 times as wide as width of eye; eyes large, elliptical, strongly convex, very slightly projecting beyond outline of head, inner margins slightly S-shaped; antennae short, hardly reaching midlength of lateral pronotal margins when laid alongside; scape 4 times as long as wide, slightly claviform, somewhat curved; pedicel suboval, 1.5 times as long as wide; third antennomere slender, subcylindrical, about twice as long as wide; fourth antennomere triangular, as long as wide; antennomeres 5–10 trapezoidal, wider than long, terminal antennomere rhomboid, slightly longer than wide; sculpture of head consisting of small, oval or horse-shoe-shaped cells with small, lustrous central grains.

Pronotum rather strongly convex, 1.2 times as wide as long, with shallow lateroposterior depressions; anterior margin strongly biarcuate, with wide medial lobe, posterior margin slightly biarcuate; lateral margins nearly regularly rounded, shallowly emarginate in front of rectangular posterior angles; basal tubercles on both sides of shallow prescutellar pit small; “agriloid” carina missing; sculpture consisting of small, dense, polygonal cells without or with indistinct central grains. Scutellum subpentagonal, flat, somewhat longer than wide, microsculptured.

Elytra regularly, moderately convex, 3.0 times as wide as long, not caudiform; lateral margins slightly emarginate at basal third, than regularly tapering towards apex; humeral swellings small but well-defined, basal, transverse depression deep, wide, reaching scutellum; subhumeral carina obsolete, reaching midlength of lateral margins; elytral epipleura very reduced, nearly indistinct; elytral sculpture fine, homogeneous, consisting of short, transverse, zig-zag rugae.

Ventral surface lustrous, pro- and metaepimera with round or polygonal cells without central grains, abdomen finely ocellate; prosternum scarcely convex, without anterior, transverse groove (like Fig. 24 ); prosternal process flat, wide, only slightly enlarged behind procoxae; anal ventrite regularly rounded, with very weak apical serration; anal tergite flat, rounded, with fine apical serration. Legs relatively long, stout, protibiae slightly curved, with inner, preapical brush of short, dense, cream-white setae; meso- and metatibiae somewhat curved, metatibiae slightly flattened; all tarsi shorter then tibiae; tarsal claws thin, hook-shaped, slightly enlarged at base.

Sexual dimorphism. Male unknown.

Measurements. Length: 7.2 mm; width: 1.8 mm.

Differential diagnosis. Agrilaxia cacao sp. nov. is very similar to A. bahiana and A. claudei ( Fig. 3 ) from which it differs only by the colouration, less robust body, deeply grooved frons and rectangular posterior pronotal angles. It is impossible to to attribute these species to any species-group; they differ from each other by the characters given in Table 1.

Etymology. Noun in apposition. Agrilaxia cacao sp. nov. is named according to the name of the locality of the holotype.

Distribution. French Guiana.

Notes. Agrilaxia bahiana was described for a single female labelled: “ Bahia [ Brasil]” (holotype deposited in BMNH). The holotype (by monotypy) possesses a somewhat deformed apical part of the elytra.

All three species ( A. bahiana , A. cacao sp. nov., A. claudei ) together with A.violaceipennis (Thomson, 1879) seem to be related to the A. bivittata species-group (see the next species) but they differ from it by the stout, robust body and widely grooved frons.

Figures

Figs 1–8. Agrilaxia, dorsal aspect. 1 – Agrilaxia cacao sp. nov., holo- type ♀, 7.2 mm; 2 – A. bongrandi Cobos, 1972, J (Route de Cacao), 6.0 mm; 3 – A.claudei Cobos, 1972, ♀ (Bélizon), 8.0 mm; 4 – A. tristis Cobos, 1972, ♀ (Saul), 7.2 mm; 5 – A. elegans sp. nov., holotype J, 7.8 mm; 6 – A. cordicollis sp. nov., holotype J, 6.5 mm; 7 – A. glabra sp. nov., holotype ♀, 6.0 mm; 8 – A. sulcifrons sp. nov., holotype J, 6.1 mm.

Figs 17–29. 17–19 – anal tergites (17 – Agrilaxia glabra sp. nov., 18 – A. tristis sp. nov., 19 – A. caudata sp. nov.). 20–22 – anal ventrites (20 – A. glabra sp. nov., 21 – A. tristis sp. nov., 22 – A. caudata sp. nov.). 23 – most important diagnostic characters of Agrilaxia spp. (schematically): a – lateroposterior pronotal depressi- ons; b – basal pronotal tubercles; c – transverse basal depression; d – prognathous/ non-prognathous mouth parts; e – lateral margin of pronotum;f – “agriloid” carina; g – humeral swelling; h – elytral epipleura; i – posthumeral carina; j – anal ventrite; k – anal tergite. 24–29 – form of anterior prosternal margin, schematically (24 – flat or slightly convex, 25 – slightly grooved, 26 – deeply grooved, 27 – with longitudinal, lamelliform carina, 28 – with transverse rolled up carina, 29 – with medial perpendicular, peg-like spine). Not to scale.