Brachys exquisitus Hespenheide

Westcott, Richard L., Hespenheide, Henry A., N, Jesús Romero, Solorio, Armando Burgos & M, Armando Equihua, 2008, The Buprestidae (Coleoptera) of Morelos, Mexico, with description of six new species, and a partially annotated checklist, Zootaxa 1830, pp. 1-20 : 7-8

Brachys exquisitus Hespenheide , new species

( Fig. 8 )

Holotype female: Length 3.20 mm long, width 1.70 mm; ovate, robust, truncate and narrowly impressed in front ( Fig. 8 ), nearly flat above and shallowly convex below when viewed from side; above black with reddish-coppery reflections, elytra strongly shining in broad, nearly glabrous oval along suture behind and including scutellum; pronotum and elytra otherwise densely and nearly uniformly covered with silvery setae, dark glabrous spot ringed by band of denser setae, small oval patches of orange setae on either side of suture in middle of glabrous spot; beneath black, uniformly, inconspicuously setose, more densely so on abdominal ventrites.

Head from above convex, narrowly impressed along midline; antennae inserted in depressions just interior to base of eyes, epistoma narrowly emarginate at base, linear transverse groove above epistomal area and antennal depressions joining pores at inner margin of eyes and paired medial pores; surface nearly smooth between eyes, inconspicuously punctate above and beneath, inconspicuously setose on upper 1/2 of front; antennae nearly linear. Pronotum shallowly convex in transverse section, 1.65 mm wide at base, 1.00 mm wide at apex, 0.70 mm long at midline; sides slightly rounded at base then nearly straight to apical angles; anterior margin very shallowly convex; base undulate, angulately emarginate in front of elytral lobe, then produced and truncate anterior to scutellum; surface broadly, shallowly transversely depressed along base, depression angled forward to lateral margins, vague raised ridges anterior to elytral humeri; surface regularly, minutely punctuate, faintly shagreened between punctures. Scutellum triangular, transversely depressed. Elytra subequal to pronotum at base and slightly wider and angulate just behind humeri; humeral angles quadrate; sides nearly parallel to middle, then attenuate to tips, which are narrowly, conjointly rounded; posthumeral carina absent; humeri narrow, moderately prominent, each elytron with shallow triangular depression at base interior to humerus and very shallow depressions along lateral margin between humerus and middle and near suture at apical 3/4; surface densely, coarsely punctate. Beneath densely inconspicuously ocellatepunctate, prosternal process deeply, narrowly grooved between coxal cavities; profemora minutely denticulate on interior margins; abdominal ventrite 5 narrowly emarginate at apex.

Type specimens: holotype ( UNAM), México, Morelos, 2.5 km N, 4 km O Huautla, Estación CEAMISH, Alt. 940 m, 18°27.671’ N 99°02.475’ O, 8-X-96, C. Uribe 200RA; paratypes, Morelos, 2.5 km N, 4 km O Huautla, Estación CEAMISH, Alt. 940 m, 18°27.671’ N 99°02.475’ O, 7-12-VII-96, F. A. Noguera, E. Ramírez, B. Rodríguez, M. A. Morales, S. Zaragoza, M. E. Guardado, A. Peréz, C.A. Uribe, E. González, Trampa Malaise 1 (1, EBCC); 2.5 km O Ajuchitlán, Alt. 950 m, 18°28.065’ N 98°59.546’ O, 16.II.1996, B. Rodríguez (1, EBCC). Ver[acruz], Est. Biol. de Los Tuxtlas, alt. 480 m S.N.M., 30 Junio 1986, P. Sinaca, T. M. (1, UNAM).

Discussion: Brachys exquisitus is very unusual among North and Central American Brachys in lacking posthumeral carinae on the elytra and in the pattern of setae. Only B. elegans Fisher and B. simplex Waterhouse lack the carinae, and two related but undescribed species from Hidalgo in México and from Costa Rica lack carinae and also share similar patterns of setae. Brachys exquisitus differs from the species from Hidalgo and Costa Rica in being more robust, having the dark glabrous spot ringed by a band of denser setae, and possessing patches of orange setae in the dark spot. Superficially the species somewhat resembles Hylaeogena cincta (Waterhouse) and other species of Hylaeogena and Pachyschelus that may, in turn, be mimicking members of the Coccinellidae (Hespenheide, in preparation), although there is no obvious model in the case of B. exquisitus . The three paratypes, also females, measure 2.85–3.20 mm in length. The specimen from Ajuchitlán is proportionately slightly narrower than the other three specimens.

Etymology: The name refers to the unusual and charming color pattern.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 10. 1, Acmaeodera noguerai Westcott, sp. nov., dorsal habitus. 2, Acmaeodera tenuivittata Westcott, sp. nov., dorsal habitus. 3 – 5, Agrilus cyphothoracoides Hespenheide, sp. nov.: 3, dorsal habitus; 4, lateral view; 5, dorsal view aedeagus. 6 – 7. Agrilus pseudosallei, Hespenheide sp. nov.: 6, dorsal habitus; 7 dorsal view aedeagus. 8, Brachys exquisitus Hespenheide, sp. nov., dorsal habitus. 9 – 10. Chrysobothris tessellata Westcott, sp. nov.: 9, dorsal habitus; 10, dorsal view aedeagus.