Heterachthes rugosicollis, Martins 1970:1330

Swift, Ian, 2008, Heterachthes rugosicollisMartins: A New Cerambycid to the North American Fauna (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), and a Key to the Genus, The Coleopterists Bulletin 62 (4), pp. 545-549 : 545-549

Heterachthes rugosicollis, Martins 1970:1330 ; Monne´, Bezark and Hovore

2007:103

Description. Male. Form: small, elongate, cylindrical, uniformly brown throughout, excepting two indistinct, pale antemedian maculae. Head: brown, coarsely, rugosely punctate throughout; sparse, long, erect setae present on dorsal surface; antennal tubercles wide and flattened, not produced into a spine; ommatidia coarse; antennae elongated, with XI antennomeres, antennae exceeding the elytral apices by 2.5 antennomeres, basal antennomeres enlarged in diameter, becoming less so apically; scattered with long, erect yellowish setae; each antennomere with the basal end rounded and the apical end subquadrate, antennomere III the longest, the remaining antennomeres roughly equal in length. Pronotum: brown, rugosely punctate, forming some ridges toward the median of the disc, clothed with sparse, long, erect yellowish setae; approximately 1.2X long as wide, widest at middle; prosternum glabrous, but with undulating transverse ridges, most prominent laterally, prosternal process narrowing sharply between the procoxae and expanding abruptly posteriorly into a subtriangular articulation; procoxal cavities narrowly open posteriorly; meso- and metasternum glabrous, with very sparse long, erect, yellow setae; mesosternal process expanded posteriorly, with two small, rounded lateral projections extending into the mesocoxae; ventrites darker brown than meso- and metasterna, similar in vestiture, fifth ventrite abruptly truncate. Elytra: uniformly brown, with the exception of two antemedial pale maculae, the center of which being palest, and progressively transitioning to the brown elytral color radially; surface with shallow, fine, rounded punctures evenly spaced throughout, each bearing a short, suberect seta; elytral apices rounded, inner angles acute, forming a very slight projection angled 45 degrees from the midline; sutural gap at apex exposing the pygidium. Legs: femora clavate, the profemora strongly so, the meso- and metafemora moderately; very sparsely punctate with punctures widely and randomly scattered, each usually bearing a long, brown, erect seta; tarsomeres lighter in color than legs, II and III as long as the first, the tarsal claw inserted roughly one-half its length into tarsomere III, tarsal claws divergent.

Diagnosis. From other North American Heterachthes , this species most closely resembles H. texanus , H. ebenus , and perhaps H. polingi , the latter of which is putatively sympatric in southeastern Arizona. It can immediately be separated from H. texanus by the presence of two antemedian elytral maculae, as well as its shorter, less tumid antennal scape, and by the pronotum which is distinctly expanded at the middle, while the pronotum of H. texanus is more parallel-sided.

While not occurring in the same region, H. rugosicollis is somewhat similar to H. ebenus , from which it differs by the less clavate femora, shorter antennal scape, abdomen with very sparse, yellowish, erect setae, and the antemedian maculae of the elytra. Finally, it may also be separated from H. polingi by the nature of the elytral maculae, whereas H. polingi possesses an undulating, zigzag band more or less across the median of the elytra in addition to having body pubescence of two types: long, recurved and short, suberect. The following key may be used to separate the species of Heterachthes in America north of Mexico.