Brachys rileyi Hespenheide

Hespenheide, Henry A., 2015, Striking New Species ofBrachysDejean, 1833 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico, The Coleopterists Bulletin 69 (2), pp. 221-224 : 221-222

Brachys rileyi Hespenheide , new species ( Fig. 1)

Description. Holotype female: Rounded heptagonal, more abruptly narrow in front than behind; black head, pronotum, scutellum, and ventrally,

strongly shiny, with weak, very pale golden reflections, except coppery on scutellum, anterior 2/3 and apical 1/6 of elytra dark greenish blue, paler greenish blue along suture, oval, weakly depressed, reddish coppery area between blue areas that extend to lateral margin ( Fig. 1); head nearly glabrous between eyes, with sparse silvery setae on vertex and just above epistoma and antennal insertions; pronotum nearly glabrous on disc, sparsely covered with silvery setae in basal depression and more broadly along lateral margins; elytra with inconspicuous dark setae in blue areas, coppery area with dense coppery setae; ventral surface with uniform, sparse, short, inconspicuous setae, longer, sparse, silvery setae along posterior margin of terminal ventrite; 4.75 mm long, 2.30 mm wide. Head: Width 1.40 mm, narrowly depressed along midline, more broadly so between eyes on ventral 1/2; epistomal width 1/5 distance between inner margins of eyes. Pronotum: Strongly convex at anterior margin in cross-section, nearly weakly so in lateral view, transversely depressed along base, widest and narrowly rounded at base, sides weakly emarginate to apical angles; prehumeral carinae strong, about 1/2 length of pronotum at middle; surface ocellate punctate along margins. Scutellum triangular, weakly rounded on anterior margin, about 1.5X wider than long. Elytra: Subequal to pronotum at base, slightly wider at middle than at base and weakly emarginate between, apices convergently rounded; humeri moderately prominent, each elytron with strong, oval depression along base interior to humerus, coppery area weakly depressed, carinate along lateral margin just beyond posterior edge of coppery area; surface with weak ridge interior to lateral carina on basal 1/3, finely punctate on disk in blue area, surface densely micropunctate and granular in coppery area. Venter: Faintly, inconspicuously shagreened and ocellate punctate, punctures open behind on abdominal ventrites. Apex of terminal abdominal ventrite broadly rounded with 20 deflexed, subequal, blunt teeth.

Allotype male: Like female except lower half of front with dense, long, golden setae, apical ventrite entire, broadly and weakly rounded; 4.75 mm long, 2.30 mm wide; genitalia 1.25 mm long, parallelsided at base with rounded transparent lobes for apical 0.20 mm of parameres.

Type Specimens. Holotype: Texas: Jeff Davis Co., Davis Mts. Preserve, Mt. Livermore , Limpia Chute Trail , 2,230 – 2,400 m. (± 200 m), 30.63897°N, 104.16321°W, 17.06.2014, E.G. Riley, sweep Quercus gambeli ( TAMU, TAMU- ENTO X1101627) . Allotype: [New Mexico: Torrance Co.,] Tajique , 25.06.1941, R.H. Beamer ( FMNH) . Paratypes: New Mexico: [Otero Co.,] Cloudcroft, 9000f, June, W. Knaus (male, FMNH) ; Socorro Co., Magdalena, Cibola Natl. For [est], North Baldy Mt. , 10.08.2005, M.S. Romero, on Gambel oak (female, UNMC) ; [Torrance Co.,] Monzano [= Manzano], 28.06.1941, R.H. Beamer (male, FMNH) . Texas: same data as holotype (female, TAMU, TAMU-ENTO X1117572 ) .

Etymology. Named in honor of the collector of the holotype.

Host. Swept from Gambel oak, Quercus gambelii Nuttall (Fagaceae) .

Discussion. This is the only southwestern species of Brachys with blue elytra and a subapical coppery patch of setae. I have seen specimens from Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia that I consider to belong to the widespread species under the name of Brachys aerosus (Melsheimer) that superficially approach B. rileyi by having dark metallic blue elytra with irregular preapical patches of dark orange setae. The eastern specimens differ most obviously, however, in having the pronotum with strong reddish coppery reflections and moderately dense coppery setae, the elytra with a weak transverse fascia of setae across the middle, and the apical patches of orange setae with an irregular anterior margin and extending to the elytral apices, among other differences. There are a number of smaller Central American species of Brachys , described and undescribed, that are entirely bright metallic blue or have bright metallic blue elytra, e.g., Brachys bella Fisher. The Central American species are associated with monocots and are probably not closely related within the genus to the species described here. The three species described in this paper are apparently all associated with oaks ( Quercus spp. ). The female paratypes are smaller, the one from Texas being 3.95 mm long, 1.90 mm wide, whereas the specimen from New Mexico is 4.55 mm long, 2.30 mm wide. The male paratypes are 4.30 mm long and 2.05 mm wide and 4.15 mm long and 2.00 mm wide. The male genitalia are not distinctive but similar to those of most eastern US oak-feeding Brachys ( B. aerosus , B. ovatus (Weber) , B. tessellatus (F.), etc.).