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.