Sphenoptera (Deudora) svatopluki, Kalashian & Karagyan, 2016

Kalashian, Mark Yu. & Karagyan, Gayane H., 2016, Two new species of Sphenoptera from South-West Asia (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Chrysochroinae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 56 (1), pp. 17-22 : 20-22

Sphenoptera (Deudora) svatopluki sp. nov.

( Figs 2 , 5 )

Type locality. Iraq, Diyala Province, Kanakin.

Type material. HOLOTYPE: ♁, ‘[ Iraq] Kanakin Irak / 9.IV.39 Frey [p] // Typus [p, on red paper] // Deudora / kanakina m. Type [h] / Det. Dr Obenberger [p]’ ( NMPC) . PARATYPE, 1 ♁, the same locality data, but without type and identification labels ( NMPC).

Description. Body rather elongate, 2.7 times as long as wide, dark bronzy, rather shiny, body above nearly glabrous with very few inconspicuous setae, ventrally with short white setae slightly more dense laterally. Length 3.28–4.25 mm, width 1.18–1.58 mm.

Head rather broad, very slightly narrower than pronotum anteriorly; eyes large, moderately convex, slightly projecting beyond contour of head; vertex 2.07–2.09 times as wide as transverse diameter of eye. Clypeus in shape of rather narrow semicircle. Frons with almost straight sides, very weakly diverging posteriorly, flattened or very slightly convex, with pair of small weak reliefs approximately at the level of mid-length of eyes. Supraantennal carinae anteriorly strong, posteriorly gradually disappearing rather far from inner margins of eyes. Surface with sparse superficial micropunctures and with rather big macropunctures dense anteriorly, towards vertex becoming weaker and more sparse, reliefs with only micropunctures. Punctate portions of surface with short dense setae, reliefs with single setae. Antennae 1.50–1.80 times as long as vertical diameter of eye, serrated from antennomere IV which is slightly longer than wide, antennomere V nearly equilateral, more distal antennomeres moderately transverse.

Pronotum 1.35–1.40× as wide as long, widest approximately in middle, with sides nearly regularly arcuate, only very slightly emarginate before acute-angled posterior angles. Lateral carinae extending to approximately anterior 1/4 of pronotum, visible from above in approximately posterior 1/3. Anterior margin very feebly bisinuate, bordered with indistinct sulcus narrowly interrupted medially; basal margin bisinuate, with median projection moderately broad with almost rectilinearly truncated apex. Pronotal disc nearly regularly moderately convex, flattened or very slightly depressed along middle in posterior 1/2–2/3. Medial portion of disc with irregular sparse rather small macropunctures slightly more dense along middle, laterally pronotum with distinct concentric wrinkles; micropunctures like on frons. Scutellum transversally triangular with rounded lateral angles, nearly flat, with micropunctation similar to that of pronotum.

Elytra 1.85–1.95× as long as wide, near humeri distinctly wider than pronotal base, their sides subparallel or very slightly convergent to posterior 2/5, then very slightly arcuate, distally nearly rectilinearly converging to apex. Elytral apices angularly irregularly arcuate. Elytra convex, odd intervals slightly convex, even intervals flat or very weakly depressed, suture distinctly convex in posterior 3/4. Surface with micropunctation similar to that on pronotum, disc with rows of rather long and distinct hyphen-like punctures, intervals with irregular rather sparse and small macropunctures, part of surface with few irregular transverse wrinkles.

Prosternal process nearly flat, laterally and apically bordered with rather coarse sulcus, with few irregular coarse punctures medially. Metasternum and abdominal ventrite I with large and rather coarse rasp-shaped punctures laterally, medially and posteriorly, but distinct until anal ventrite. Metacoxae with hind margin slightly emarginate medially and moderately laterally. Anal ventrite distally trisinuate, with acute lateral angles.

Protibiae slightly incurved, meso- and metatibiae nearly straight, all tibiae with inner margin before apex with tooth, rather small in protibiae, strong in meso- and metatibiae.

Aedeagus as in Fig. 5 .

Female unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Closely resembling S. misella Jakovlev, 1900 known from Southern Transcaucasia ( Armenia, Georgia), Turkey and Iran. Sphenoptera misella differs from the new species in smaller and sparser macropunctation and denser and more distinct micropunctation of the head and pronotum, in more delicate wrinkles on lateral parts of pronotum, nearly equally flattened elytral intervals, hyphen-like punctures of elytral rows finer, lateral keels of pronotum visible from above nearly in the whole length. Aedeagus in S. misella ( Fig. 6 ) is slenderer than in the new species.

Etymology. The new species is dedicated to the famous coleopterist, one of the leaders in buprestological studies all over the world, Dr. Svatopluk Bílý, on the occasion of his 70 th birthday.

Distribution. Iraq (Diyala Province).

Figures

Figs 1–2. 1 – Sphenoptera (Deudora) peninsulae sp. nov. (holotype); 2 – S. (D.) svatopluki sp. nov. (holotype).

Figs 3–6. 3–4 – Sphenoptera (Deudora) peninsulae sp. nov. 3 – aedeagus, 4 – ovipositor; 5 – S. (D.) svatopluki sp. nov., aedeagus; 6 – S. (D.) misella Jakovlev, 1900, aedeagus. Scale bars = 1 mm.