Chrysobothris cerceripraeda Westcott and Thomas, 2015

Westcott, Richard L. & Thomas, Michael C., 2015, A new species of Chrysobothris Eschscholtz (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from nests of Cerceris fumipennis Say (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) in northeastern Florida, USA, with new state records for species of Chrysobothris and a list of buprestid prey species taken by the wasp in Florida, Insecta Mundi 2015 (417), pp. 1-10 : 2-6

Chrysobothris cerceripraeda Westcott and Thomas , new species

( Fig. 1–8 )

Description: Holotype male ( Fig. 1–7 ): 10.0 mm long, 4.0 mm wide, shallowly convex, dorsally black, punctures with dark brassy-bronze luster in certain lights, raised sculpturing moderately shining and impunctate; ventrally shining metallic black with bronzy luster, faint coppery reflections along front margin of prosternum and apex of last abdominal ventrite, tarsi greening blue; head with front black with a dark bronze luster, vertex black; all vestiture white.

Head ( Fig. 2 ) with front subflattened, densely clothed with long white subrecumbent setae, coarsely confusedly reticulate-punctate, with three irregularly-linear median callosities, above with a distinct chevron that merges to a bold median carina on vertex; front margin of clypeus broadly shallowly triangularly emarginate; antennae with first three antennomeres, especially the first, with faint brassy reflections, antennomeres 4–11 black, of equal size except the 11 th slightly less wide.

Pronotum ( Fig. 1 ) evenly convex, densely punctate, especially laterally, and with small irregular smooth callosities, mostly on middle, surface almost glabrous, with a few setae evident at sides and anterior and posterior margins near angles, the angles triangular and quadrate, respectively; front margin shallowly lobed at middle; hind margin evenly bisinuate, truncate in front of scutellum; lateral margins bold, well defined, entire and subparallel until they become arcuate near apical pronotal angles, where they are somewhat confused by punctures.

Elytra ( Fig. 1 ) sculptured with raised smooth callosities, rugae and partial carinae, punctures similar to those on pronotum and especially concentrated in each median and paired postmedian callosities; lateral margins serrulate on about apical half, the teeth internally at apex obsolete; each elytron with deep median basal pit, humeral depression distinct, shallow; foveae distinct, the median one deepest; setae not apparent except for minute ones in marginal punctures.

Pygidium bluish black, vaguely greenish apically, densely and evenly punctured, with a small deep U-shaped median notch.

Underside ( Fig. 3 ): prosternum ( Fig. 4 ) with a distinct median lobe on front margin, densely punctate, the punctures finer anteriorly, moderately clothed with long, dense recumbent setae. Abdomen with lateral callosities distinct on sternites 3–5, puncturation and setae as in Fig. 3 ; last visible sternite with lateral margins serrulate, submarginal ridges vague (cf. Fig. 8 ), apex rather broadly semicircularly emarginate. Anterior femur with a prominent triangular tooth that is denticulate on outer margin. Anterior tibia ( Fig. 5 ) distinctly arcuate, with a prominent elongate rounded dilation that is restricted well before apex.

Aedeagus gradually expanded to about middle, where strongly constricted, then subparallel to apex, as in Fig. 6–7 .

Allotype female: 9.1 mm long, 3.9 mm wide, sexually differing from male as follows: head shining black; prosternal vestiture distinctly less dense; apex of last visible sternite ( Fig. 8 ) much smaller, shallowly emarginate; pygidium not notched at apex, with blue-black portion mostly flattened and finely, sparsely punctured, the punctures changing to coarse and close in distinctly bluish area, from where pygidium is abruptly, moderately deflected, this apical portion golden green and very coarsely confluently punctate; foretibia less obviously arcuate, unmodified apically.

Type material. Holotype ( FSCA) labeled “ FLORIDA: Duval Co., Pelotes Is. Nat. Pres., 18-V-2010, A. J. Silagyi, L. Whilby, in burrow of Cerceris fumipennis / HOLOTYPE Chrysobothris cerceripraeda Westcott & Thomas ” ; Allotype, same except “ ALLOTYPE ”. Paratypes as follows: same data (2 M, 3 F) ; USA,

Florida, Duval Co., Jacksonville, JEA Pelotes Island, nest of Cerceris fumipennis , 11.v.11, L. Whilby, L. Hassell, K. Okins, P. Skelley (16 M, 8 F), deposited in CASC, CSCA, FMNH, FSCA, LACM, MCZC, RLWE, SGWC, TCMC, UCDC, USNM, WFBM.

Variation. Notwithstanding variation in size, which in the length of males varies from 6.3–10.0 mm (n = 19, mean = 7.5 mm) and in females from 7.1–10.4 mm (n = 12, mean = 8.8 mm), and dorsal sculpturing, particularly the median frontal callosity(ies) on the head and development of the pronotal callosities, this species is quite uniform in appearance. On the pronotum, there are always a pair of more or less distinct callosities, but elsewhere they are quite irregular, perhaps better described as the surface being smoothly raised between rows punctures (cf. Fig. 1 ).

Biology/Ecology. The type locality, Pelotes Island ( Fig. 9 ), is part of the 170-acre Pelotes Island Nature Preserve owned by St. Johns River Power Park, which is co-owned by Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) and Florida Power and Light (FPL), two Florida utility companies. Pelotes Island is located approximately 3.4 km east of the Power Park, and approximately 2.5 km north of the Blount Island port facility of Jacksonville. The preserve consists of a string of low islands, composed of pine flatwoods, maritime hammocks and shell middens, surrounded by salt marsh ( Fig. 10–11 ). Chrysobothris cerceripraeda has been collected only from nests of Cerceris fumipennis . Given its general appearance and that it keys nearest to C. texana , we might hazard a guess that its larval host is a conifer. However, there are many other potential hosts, as can be seen in a list of the plants found in the area accessed May 30, 2014 at: http://pelotes.jea.com/NaturePreserve/PlantSpecies.htm. A special effort was made during the 2011 visit to find adults on possible host plants, but that search was unsuccessful.

Comparison and Discussion. In general appearance, C. cerceripraeda resembles C. quadriimpressa Gory and Laporte and C. semisculpta LeConte ; however, it is but remotely related to them. Rather, in Fisher’s (1942) key it runs reasonably well to C. texana LeConte , to which it bears little resemblance, but with a slight problem in the first alternative of Couplet 24 because some specimens of C. cerceripraeda have distinct, albeit small, median pronotal callosities. The second alternative in that couplet is an obvious dead end. Some slight resemblance does exist between these two species, including the male genitalia and protibial dilation, but other than general facies they are immediately separable by the color of the front and vertex in both sexes, which are coppery or coppery-red color in C. texana , but dark in females or with a bronze luster in males of C. cerceripraeda .

Due to the fact that the eastern USA, Florida in particular, has been extremely well collected for Buprestidae , and Coleoptera in general, and that the site where this species was collected is so close to the Port of Jacksonville, we have considered that this beetle may be an introduced exotic, albeit one that clearly has established. However, according to foreign colleagues Wolfgang Barries, Svata Bílý and Mark Volkovitsh (pers. comm.), who are experts on Buprestidae , the first particularly with Chrysobothris , it does not resemble any species known to them. Their opinion is that it belongs to our fauna. Other species of Buprestidae in the USA are rarely collected, sometimes known by only a few specimens, notable examples in the Southeast being Beerellus taxodii Nelson , which is known from only two specimens cut from Taxodium distichum (L.) Richard ( Taxodiaceae ) at the same time and place in southern Georgia ( Nelson 1982); and Trachykele fattigi Knull , which was described from one specimen collected in northern Georgia ( Knull 1954) and is otherwise known from only seven specimens cut from Juniperus virginiana (L.) ( Cupressaceae ) at the type locality ( Beer 1974).

Etymology. The specific epithet is a combination of the prefix cerceri -, from the generic name of the predator, Cerceris fumipennis ; and the Latin suffix praeda, meaning booty or plunder.

New state records for Florida.

Agrilus dif fi cilis Gory. DeSoto Co., Arcadia, Peace River Campground, 27.22897, -81.88468, purple prism trap, manuka and hexanol lures, 19-IV-2012, Southerland (1); Hillsborough Co., Tampa, Lettuce Lake, 28.07515, -82.37454, purple prism sticky trap, manuka oil, 21-VII-2010, D. Gaskill (1); Monroe Co., Key Largo, 28-IV-82, M.C. Thomas (1); Sarasota Co., Sarasota, Myakka River S.P., 27.27483, -82.27040, purple prism sticky trap, Phoebe oil, 26-VI-2011, A. Roux (2); Union Co., Hwy. 241 at Santa Fe River, 18-V-86, C.W. Mills, III (1).

Agrilus subrobustus Saunders. Escambia Co., Pensacola, Navy Point Park , 30.37669 , -87.29211 , Lindgren funnel w/EtOH, 21-X-2013, Brooks (1). This Asian exotic was first reported in the USA by Westcott (2007) based on three specimens from Georgia. Subsequently it was found in Tennessee (Hanson et al. 2010), later to be widespread in Alabama and Georgia, and found in South Carolina ( Hoebeke and Wheeler 2011). Its only known host is the introduced and widely escaped mimosa, Albizia julibrissin Durazzini (Fabaceae) ( Jendek and Poláková 2014).

Chrysobothris acutipennnis Chevrolat. Hillsborough Co., Tampa, Port of Tampa, Lindgren funnel w/ alpha-beta-pinene, 27.916681 , -82.441696 , 21-IX-2011 (1); same except 27.93105 , -82.43696 , 19- II-2013 (1); same except 27.92516 , -82.43891 , w/ EtOH, 17-IV-2011, 27-II and 11-IV-2012 (3), all F. M. Parilla. This widely ranging species has been recorded from Texas to northern South America, and the larvae are known to feed in Ebenopsis ebano (Berlandier) Barneby & J. W. Grimes (Fabaceae) and Leucaena pulverulenta (Schlectendal) Bentham (Fabaceae) ( Nelson et al. 2008). These Florida records undoubtedly represent an introduction.

Chrysobothris scitula Gory. Alachua Co., Gainesville, Univ. of Florida, 6-10-V-2010, in burrow of Cerceris fumipennis, A.J. Silagyi, D. Saeger (1); Leon Co., Tall Timbers Research Station, Malaise trap #2, “ 06-8-20-1993 ” (1).

Figures

Figure 9. Google Earth image of Pelotes Island (outlined in white) and vicinity.

Figures 1–5. Chrysobothris cerceripraeda Westcott and Thomas, n. sp., male. 1) Dorsal habitus. 2) Front of head. 3) Ventral habitus. 4) Prosternum. 5) Protibia.

Figure 6–8. Chrysobothris cerceripraeda Westcott and Thomas, n. sp. 6) Male aedeagus, dorsal. 7) Male aedeagus, ventral. 8) Female terminal ventrite.

Figure 10–13. Locality photographs. 10) View of salt marsh surrounding Pelotes Island Nature Preserve, Duval Co., FL. 11) Dirt road that runs length of Pelotes Island Nature Preserve. All Cerceris fumipennis Say nests were found on or next to road. 12) Drs. Leroy Whilby, FDACS-DPI CAPS, and Adam Silagyi, formerly FDACS-DPI CAPS, excavating nest of Cerceris fumipennis on Pelotes Island. 13) Excavation from nest of Cerceris fumipennis showing a common prey species, Chrysobothris shawnee Wellso and Manley.