Agrilus (Agrilus) gueorguievi, Curletti & Sakalian, 2009

Curletti, Gianfranco & Sakalian, Vladimir, 2009, Sixteen new species of Agrilus Curtis, 1825 from East Africa (Coleoptera, Buprestidae), ZooKeys 24 (24), pp. 1-29 : 3-4

Agrilus (Agrilus) gueorguievi , sp. n.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C1AE19BC-A3DF-40A3-9B1C-AE8BECC0CD4F

Figs 3 , 4

Type specimens. Holotype ♁: “ Kenya, Tsavo West National Park (03°30´S – 38°16´E), 7.11.2005, G. Curletti & V. Sakalian leg.” . Paratypes 14 exs: 2 ♁♁ and 4 ♀ ♀ with same locality and date as holotype ; 3 ♁♁ and 5 ♀ ♀: “ Kenya, western of Voi City (03°26´S – 38°30´E), 4.11.2005, G. Curletti & V. Sakalian leg.”. Th e holotype is deposited in IZBAS and the paratypes in GCCI, IZBAS and NMK .

Description of holotype. Body short, subcylindrical, dark copper with blackish tinge, vertex and frons of male black; elytra with uniform, dense and short white pubescence.

Head with very narrow medial sulcus and very fine longitudinal striae on vertex; vertex and frons black; width of vertex between eyes 0.55 mm; frons convex, protruding in dorsal view; upper portion of frons densely punctuate; lower portions of frons rugose; clypeus separated from frons by sharp carina; clypeus and genae with short, dense, white pubescence; eyes convex, very small; antennae short, barely reaching anterior portion of pronotum; antennomeres 4–11 wider than long, triangular.

Pronotum widest at anterior third; anterior margin straight, carinate; anterior pronotal lobe absent; lateral margins slightly curved before latero-posterior angles; lateroposterior angles slightly obtuse; pronotum with two medial and two lateral shallow depressions; prehumeral pronotal carinae absent; marginal and submarginal carinae subparallel, not coalescent; discal sculpture consisting of transverse striae and sparse punctuation; pubescence on disc very sparse and white.

Scutellum small, anterior margin rounded; transverse carina present; apical projection long and acutely pointed.

Elytral width across humeri slightly wider than pronotal base, widest at posterior third; humeral depressions deep and wide; apices narrowly jointly arcuate, not serrulate; elytra with short, uniform, white pubescence; discal elytral sculpture consisting of transverse wrinkles.

Underside. Prosternal lobe with anterior margin truncate. Prosternal process parallel between procoxae, acuminate apically; prosternal process with dense, white, pubescence. Ventrites with uniform, short, white, sparse pubescence, denser on laterosternites; apex of last ventrite truncate with long apical setae. Metatarsus shorter than metatibia; basal metatarsomere shorter than following metatarsomeres together. Aedeagus ( Fig. 4 ).

Description of paratypes. Sexual dimorphism occurs in the color of vertex and frons, which is black in males and dark copper in females.

Size. Length 2.60–3.60 mm (holotype 3.00 mm); width 0.75–1.15 mm (holotype 0.85 mm).

Differential diagnosis. This new species is very similar to Agrilus (Agrilus) kinuthiae , sp. n., from which is differs by the blackish tinged body, black vertex and frons of males and very different shape of the aedeagus ( Fig. 4 and Fig. 6 ).

Etymology. The name was chosen to honor the Bulgarian entomologist, the late Dr. Vassil Guéorguiev, for his great body of works on different families of Coleoptera .

Remarks. Most of the specimens were collected from yellow sticky traps placed on branches of Acacia sp.

Figures

Figure 3. Agrilus (Agrilus) gueorguievi, sp. n. (dorsal view).

Figure 4. Aedeagus of Agrilus (Agrilus) gueorguievi, sp. n. (dorsal view). Scale: 1 mm.

Figure 6. Aedeagus of Agrilus (Agrilus) kinuthiae, sp. n. (dorsal view). Scale: 1 mm.