Epania gressitti Huang, Chen & Cai

Huang, Guiqiang, Cai, Bo, Xu, Wei & Chen, Li, 2014, A new species of EPania Pascoe (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae: Molorchini) from Papua New Guinea, Zootaxa 3774 (5), pp. 489-495 : 490-493

Epania gressitti Huang, Chen & Cai , sp. nov.

( Figs 1–14 )

Description. Male: body length 7.8– 11 mm; width at humeri 1.7–2.2 mm. Body metallic blue in general; head slightly green; antennae purple brown or castaneous with segments I–II metallic; pronotum green blue; elytra cobalt blue; ventral surfaces dark blue, abdomen tinged with green; fore and middle legs pitchy red-brown with a purple tinge, hind femora blue-black and hind tibiae blue-purple with a pitchy tinge.

Body largely covered with erect pale brown to silver hairs. Pronotum with dense silver pubescence laterally at apical and basal margins ( Figs 1–2 a); scutellum with dense silver pubescence; elytra with some distinctly paler hairs along suture posterior to scutellum ( Fig. 4 ); mesepisternum and mesepimeron with dense brown to silver hairs, metathorax with dense silver pubescence at sides of anterior margin ( Fig. 5 ); metepisternum with sparse silver pubescence at margin; metepimeron with dense silver pubescence; hind coxae with dense silver pubescence ( Fig. 6 ); abdominal segments II and III with a band of silver pubescence, segment IV with sparse silver pubescence at the side ( Fig. 7 ).

Head not as broad as prothorax, with dense and deep punctures; frons flat and grossly punctate, constricted by eyes ( Fig. 10 ). Antennae 1.5–1.97 times as long as body, scape and shiny about as long as segment III with some deep punctures; pedicel shiny; segment IV longer than III, V subequal to VI–X, XI longest.

Pronotum slightly longer than broad, broadest just behind middle, strongly and suddenly constricted near base, gradually and slightly narrowed towards apex, constricted above a short distance from apex; disc grossly and deeply reticulate-punctate, with punctures slightly smaller along median portion, apical and basal constricted portions largely impunctate ( Fig. 11 ); prothorax raised at apex ( Fig. 12 ). Prosternal intercoxal process with a triangular ( Fig. 13 a) or an oval ( Fig. 13 b) depression at apex.

Scutellum slightly broader than long, subtruncate posteriorly.

Elytra reaching hind coxae, each elytron narrowed and unevenly rounded apically, more than 2.0 times as long as broad; disc coarsely punctate, with an oblique raised area on inner portion, separated from external portion and apex by an obliquely longitudinal depression; distal portion raised. Ventral surfaces sparsely punctate.

Tibiae: densely punctate; hind femora barely reaching beyond abdominal apex; hind tibiae slightly arched; first hind tarsal segment subequal to next two segments combined.

Female: body length 7.5–9.2 mm; width at humeri 2.0–2.2 mm. Abdominal segments II and III with a band of silver pubescence at sides, and segment IV with or without sparse silver pubescence at sides ( Figs 8–9 ).

Antennae reaching abdominal segment I; segment X shortest among segments III–XI. Hind femora not reaching abdominal apex.

Prosternal intercoxal process with a heart-shaped ( Fig. 14 a) or sunflower-seed-shaped ( Fig. 14 b) depression at apex.

Diagnosis. This new species is similar to E. cobaltina in body colour and pronotum covered with dense silver pubescence at each side of anterior and posterior constricted portions, scutellum silver pubescent, and elytra with some distinctly paler hairs along suture behind scutellum. However, it can be distinguished from E. cobaltina by the abdominal segments II and III with a band of silver pubescence at the side, the abdominal segment IV with sparse or without silver pubescence at the side, the antennae reaching abdominal segment I, and the hind femora not reaching the abdominal apex in females.

Etymology. Named after the late Dr. Judson Linsley Gressitt (1914–1982) for his contribution to the studies of longicorn beetles from the Malay Archipelago and South Pacific.

Distribution. Papua New Guinea (East Sepik Province).

Host plant. Diospyros sp., Ebenaceae .

Specimens examined. Holotype: male, Papua New Guinea (East Sepik Province), 26.X.2012, leg. Xiaohui Han (SWU). Paratypes: 4 males and 4 females, same data as holotype (SWU); 1 male and 1 female, same data as holotype (PQSTP).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 2. Epania gressitti sp. nov. 1. holotype male; 2. paratype male. a. dorsal view; b. ventral view. Scale bars equal 5 mm.

FIGURE 3. Epania gressitti sp. nov. paratype female. a. dorsal view; b. ventral view. Scale bars equal 5 mm.

FIGURES 4 – 6. Epania gressitti sp. nov. paratype male. 4. scutellum and adjacent elytra surface; 5. metathorax, ventral view; 6. mesothorax and metathorax, lateral view. Scale bars equal 0.5 mm.

FIGURES 7 – 9. Abdomen in Epania gressitti sp. nov., lateral view. 7. paratype male; 8 – 9. paratype female. Scale bars equal 0.5 mm.

FIGURES 10 – 12. Epania gressitti sp. nov. paratype male. 10. frons; 11. pronotum, dorsal view; 12. head and prothorax, lateral view. Scale bars equal 0.5 mm.

FIGURES 13 – 14. Prosternal intercoxal process with a depression at apex in Epania gressitti sp. nov. 13. paratype male; 14. paratype female. Scale bars equal 0.5 mm, fc = fore coxa.