Agrilus (Agrilus) caquetai, Curletti, Gianfranco & Dutto, Angelo, 2017

Curletti, Gianfranco & Dutto, Angelo, 2017, Notes on the Agrilus fauna of the Colombian Amazon (Coleoptera, Buprestidae), Zootaxa 4243 (2), pp. 373-376 : 374-375

Agrilus (Agrilus) caquetai n. sp. ( Fig. 2 a, 2b)

Material examined. Holotype ♀, Colombia, Caquetà prov., La Tagua , 16.XI.2016, 0°6’16”S – 74°38’52”W, white plate trap, Curletti & Dutto leg.

Holotype description. Length 6.8 mm. Pronotum and head metallic green, elytra wine red. Head with vertex more than half the width of anterior margin of pronotum. Frons green in the upper part, changing to copper red above the clypeus and along the eyes, where there is short white pubescence. Antennae bronze, serrate from 4th antennomere. Pronotum widest anteriorly, lateral margins almost straight, posterior angles acute. Disc with transverse fine sculpture. White pubescence behind anterior angles. Premarginal carinula entire. Marginal carinae joined before base, at 4/5 of length. Prosternal lobe with anterior margin slightly sinuate in middle. Prosternal process subacute. Scutellum transversely carinate. Elytra elongated, apex subacute and regularly serrate. A long stripe of white pubescence near the suture, briefly interrupted at mid-length by brown hairs. Basal lateroterga with large white spot. Underside dark bronze; last three ventrites with white lateral spots; white pubescence also in middle of basal ventrite and on metepisternum. Legs with all claws simply toothed, metatarsomere shorter than metatibia with basal metatarsomere as long as the sum of following three (1=2+3+4).

Etymology. Named after the Caquetà river that flows to the type locality.

Remarks. The colour and elytral pubescence pattern of A. caquetai n. sp. is unique in the South America fauna.

Final comments. Two other species of Agrilus have been found in the same biotope: Agrilus (Agrilus) sexnotatus Gory & Laporte, 1837 described from Brazil (type in MNHN) and Agrilus (Agrilus) figuratus Curletti & Brûlé, 2011 described from French Guyana (type in MCCI) . Both species are new to the fauna of Colombia, and shows how the Agrilus fauna of this country is little known. With the addition of these four species, the fauna of Colombia, according to what is known, amounts to only 25 species of Agrilini , a very small number when compared to the more than 480 species known from Brazil ( Curletti & Migliore, 2014; Curletti, Ribeiro & Migliore, 2016) or to the 145 known from the much smaller French Guyana ( Curletti & Brûlé, 2015).

All the specimens found were females, confirming what was already known about collecting using interception traps in French Guyana ( Curletti, 2010).