Visayasella gracilis, Ohmomo, Sadahiro, 2011

Ohmomo, Sadahiro, 2011, One new genus and six new species of Coraebini Bedel, 1921 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from the Philippines, Zootaxa 3058, pp. 22-34 : 33

Visayasella gracilis , sp. nov.

(Fig. 13)

Description of female holotype. Body subcylindrical, flattened dorsoventrally; length 11.5 mm; width 3.9 mm, widest opposite basal abdominal pleurites visible beyond elytra just posterior to midpoint; integument with simple punctures, slight transverse rugae dorsally, finely imbricate ventrally especially laterally; dorsal surface glabrous, ventral surface with sparse vestiture of very short adpressed setae, one from each small imbrication; general body color iridescent blue-green with aeneous reflections; elytra (see Fig. 13) with two purple-to-violet trans-sutural fasciae, both with golden-to-orange-to-red reflections, elytral apices and epipleuron reflecting blue. Head: with frons between eyes projecting beyond outline of eye margin, feebly sulcate longitudinally; inner margins of eyes diverging dorsally; supra-ocular grooves extend from before dorsal crest around inner margin and back up to opposite with ventral 1/3 of outer margin; antennal cavities moderate-sized, separated by distance slightly less than width of cavity; supra-antennal groove entire, angulate medially; frontoclypeus narrowed between antennal cavities before diverging to arucately emarginate distal margin; gena depressed for basal antennomeres in repose, genal tooth feeble, elongate; antennae with antennomere 1 robust, slightly bent, wider than 2, 2 longer than wide, 3 and 4 subequal, each shorter than 2, 5–10 triangularly serrate, each successive antennomere with width to length ratio increasing, 11 oblong, slightly arcuate. Pronotum: 1.50 times wider than longer, maximum width in middle third; anterior margin strongly arcuate; posterior margin biarcuate; lateral margin with lateroposterior angles rectangular, then widening to before midpoint, subparallel before narrowing slightly and lateroanterior angles subacute; disc entire, strongly latitudinally convex in anterior half, flattened in posterior half. Scutellum: triangular, anterior margin convex, lateral margins feebly arcuately concave. Elytra: wider opposite humeri than widest part of pronotum; lateral margins subparallel in anterior third, then widening to widest point near posterior 2/5 before narrowing to separately rounded serrulate margins; epipleuron relatively short, stout, not extending beyond point opposite mesepimeron; lateral aspect of proximal abdominal pleurites visible beyond lateral margin, although not visible in Fig. 13; pygidium invisible. Prosternum: anterior margin of prosternum with wide bilobed median projection; prosternum with disc laterally convex, process quite broad, sides subparallel before narrowing to broadly attenuate apex from opposite procoxae. Abdominal ventrites: subequal in length, each successively shorter than preceding, except 5 longer than 4, sutures feebly arcuately transverse; ventrite 5 broad, evenly transverse distally. Legs: femora fusiform; pro-, mesofemora strongly arcuate; metafemora nearly straight, with dense setal comb on external face extending along middle 2/3; tarsi with tarsomeres 1–4 each with ventral pulvillus, claws appendiculate. Ovipositor: short with dense ventral setal brushes.

Specimens examined. Holotype, Ψ (CSCA): PHILIPPINES, 2006.8, Mt. Kanlaon (Canlaon), Negros, D. Mohagan leg.

Etymology. The more slender (‘gracile’) body of the second species of this new genus yields the specific ephithet chosen.

Remarks. Visayasella gracilis differs from V. superba by being smaller, more slender, with differences in the coloration and especially the colored fasciae of the elytra, both in terms of color and relative length (Figs. 11, 13) and being from different islands. It will be interesting to see if specimens or congeneric species eventually are found on the intervening islands of Bohol and Cebu.