Melobasina riedeli, Kubáň, Vítězslav & Bílý, Svatopluk, 2010

Kubáň, Vítězslav & Bílý, Svatopluk, 2010, Melobasina riedeli n. sp. from Indonesia (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Chrysochroinae), Zootaxa 2350, pp. 53-58 : 54-56

Melobasina riedeli n. sp.

( Figs. 1–13 )

Specimen examined. Holotype Ƥ (SMNS): [ Indonesia,] IRIAN JAYA [now Papua Prov.]: Biak Isl., Korim, Nernu, 100 m, 1.II.2001 leg. A.RIEDEL.

Description of the female holotype ( Fig. 1, 2 ). Length 10.6 mm, width 3.7 mm. Medium-sized, subcylindrical, rather convex; head and pronotum red-bronze with green reflection on vertex, anterior pronotal margin and along medial pronotal line; elytra black-bronze with very fine green reflection at anterior fifth and along suture; ventral surface rather lustrous, dark bronze with rather intensive green and red reflection; antennae black, legs black with blue-green reflection; mesepimera and anterolateral angles of ventrites with small patches of white tomentum; entire dorsal surface asetose, ventral side with short, sparse, recumbent white pubescence.

Head: relatively large, distinctly wider than anterior pronotal margin, eyes large, subelliptical, slightly projecting beyond outline of head; frons very slightly convex, nearly flat, supraantennal carinae poorly developed ( Fig. 8 ); vertex 3 times as wide as width of eye with feeble medial line; frontoclypeus widely, semicircularly emarginate, sculpture of head consisting of deep, rounded, rather dense punctures which are somewhat finer on vertex than on frons.

Antennae: short, hardly reaching midlength of lateral pronotal margins; scape pyriform, slightly curved, about 3 times as long as wide, pedicel subcylindrical, nearly twice as long as wide; third antennomere slightly claviform, 4 times as long as wide, somewhat flattened, antennomere 4 obtusely triangular, twice as long as wide; antennomeres 5–10 obtusely triangular to trapezoid, terminal antennomere rhomboid; distal antenomeres (6–11) slightly wider than long.

Pronotum: rather convex, distinctly campanulate, about 1.6 times as wide as long; anterior margin only very slightly biarcuate, its lateral portions margined with shallow groove, posterior margin rather deeply biarcuate with wide prescutellar lobe; lateral margins slightly S-shaped, posterior angles sharp; lateral pronotal carina hardly reaching midlength of pronotum ( Fig. 9 ); disc of pronotum somewhat flattened with small and shallow lateroposterior depressions and fine prescutellar pit; pronotal sculpture consisting of rather rough, deep, rounded punctures on lateral sides (incl. lateroposterior depressions) and of fine, sparser punctures on disc ( Fig. 7 ).

Scutellum: short, widely cordiform, about 3.5 times as wide as long with very fine microsculpture ( Fig. 7 ).

Elytra: regularly convex, twice as long as wide, not caudate; humeral swellings small but well-developed, basal, transverse depression incomplete, not reaching scutellum, divided by interstices 2 and 4; each elytron with 9 fine striae composed of fine, simple punctures and with short scutellar stria; apical third of elytral margins finely, sharply serrate, apex of each elytron bispinose, sutural spine very short; interstices (except for two sutural) with row of fine, simple punctures; elytral epipleura absent.

Ventral surface: rather lustrous with sparse punctation, prosternal process with rough punctures, margined with somewhat angulate grooves ( Fig. 10 ); anal ventrite regularly convex with sharply trispinose posterior margin ( Fig. 12 ). Number of visible tergites (7) corresponds with the general situation in Poecilonotini ( Fig. 3 ). Legs slender, meso- and metatibiae slightly bent outwards, tarsomeres 2–4 with adhesive pads. Tarsal claws strongly uncinate, somewhat enlarged at base.

Ovipositor ( Fig. 6 ): long, tubular, poorly sclerotised with rather widely inserted styli; membranous portions of coxites near styli are triangularly flared.

Male: unknown.

Remarks. Accordingly to the collector (pers. comm.), the holotype was found on a fallen trunk at a rainforest clearing. The morphology of the antennae, hind wings and ovipositor fully correspond with the general situation in the tribe Poecilonotini Jakobson, 1913 (sensu Bílý et al. 2009) and justify the attribution of the genus Melobasina to this tribe.

Etymology. This new species is dedicated to the collector of the holotype, Alexander Riedel, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Differential diagnosis. Melobasina riedeli fulfills the great gap between the distribution of M. suturalis (Halmahera Isl.) and the rest of the genus ( Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands). It is rather similar to M. apicalis from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands from which it differs by the colouration, pronotal shape and sculpture, form and sculpture of prosternal process, pilosity of head and other characters given in the Table 1.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 6. 1 – 3, 6. Melobasina riedeli n. sp., holotype, 10.6 mm. 1, dorsal aspect; 2, ventral aspect; 3, abdomen, dorsal aspect; 6, ovipositor. 4 – 5. M. apicalis Kerremans, 1900. 4, dorsal aspect; 5, ventral aspect.

FIGURES 7 – 13. Melobasina riedeli n. sp. 7, head and pronotum; 8, head, frontal aspect; 9, pronotum, lateral aspect; 10, prosternal process; 11, abdomen, lateral aspect; 12, anal ventrite; 13, wing.