Melobasis macqueeni Levey 2023, sp. n.
Creators: name: Levey, Brian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Melobasis
Melobasis macqueeni

description: M. macqueeni sp. n.
(Figs 121, 134, 155, 156, 178, 179)
Type locality: Queensland, Milmerran.
Type specimens examined. Holotype ♁ (ANIC) Milmerran, Qld. Dec. & Jan. 1943 &44. J. Macqueen / Brigalow leaves / HOLOTYPE Melobasis macqueeni sp. n. B. Levey 2012. Paratypes as follows: 3♁, 12♀ (ANIC, BLC) same data as holotype. 5♀ (MVMA) Milmerran, Qld. January 1944, J. Macqueen. 1♀ (ANIC) Milmerran, Q. 12 Dec. 1943. J. Macqueen. 3♁, 4♀ (IRSNB, BLC) Coll. R. I. Sc. N. B. Australie —Queensl. MILMERRAN 1946. Ex coll. C. Deuquet. 1♀ (QMA) Milmerran Qld. 6 Jan. 1963, A. Macqueen. 1♁ (TMSHC) Mourangee Stn.Qld. T.M.S. Hanlon, 28 Oct. 2000, Acacia harpophylla regrowth.
Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 6.6–8.4 mm; ♁ head dull green in lower three-quarters, upper quarter golden green; ♀ dull purple, sometimes with golden reflections; pronotum predominantly deep dull green or dull purple, usually with the central tenth to quarter contrastingly coloured, brighter green or coppery, lateral margin in ♁ often broadly, contrastingly reddish copper coloured, both sexes often with a roughly triangular contrastingly coloured blue-green area in antero-lateral quarter; scutellum deep dull green; elytra blackish green or dull reddish purple with the following green, blue green or violet blue markings: sutural vitta narrowly in basal seventh, broad lateral vitta extending from basal margin over the humeral callosity, along the lateral margin and epipleura to the level of the hind coxa, before deviating from the lateral margin, extending to apical fifth of elytra, usually narrowly connected to sutural vitta along basal margin; underside predominantly reddish purple to reddish violet, sometimes prosternum and prosternal process golden green; sparsely clothed with short inconspicuous silvery pubescence laterally, almost glabrous centrally.
Head (Fig. 134): very densely (♀) to contiguously punctate (♁) with small strong, mostly round punctures; ♁ densely clothed with long silvery pubescence, partly obscuring the punctation; ♀ glabrous or with very sparse pubescence near the frontoclypeal margin; spaces between the punctures weakly microreticulate; clypeal excision slightly developed, shallow, with a narrow reticulate impunctate border; clypeal peaks right angled; clypeal angles absent; vertex flat, about half width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes strongly convex.
Antenna: slightly sexually dimorphic; ♁ segments 3–10 expanded, segment 3 subtriangularly expanded, segments 4–10 with expansion elongate-quadrate, slightly petiolate at base; ♀ segments 3–10 expanded, segment 3 subtriangularly expanded, segments 4–10 with expansion almost square-quadrate, slightly petiolate at base.
Pronotum: 1.52–1.59× as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin weakly bisinuate with a weakly developed median lobe, with a well developed entire beaded margin; posterior margin moderately strongly biarcuate; widest at, or just behind midlength; lateral margins weakly almost rectilinearly diverging from basal angles to widest point, before weakly curvilinearly converging to apical angles; basal angles slightly acute or right angled;; as wide at base as elytra at base; lateral carina sharp very well defined, almost straight, about three-quarters complete; punctation in central half very dense to contiguous, consisting of transversely elliptical punctures forming transverse slightly sinuate series; punctation in lateral half very dense, the punctures transversely oval next to the central half, becoming round towards the lateral margin; spaces between punctures microreticulate; glabrous.
Scutellum: slightly elongate to quadrate, shield shaped, about one twenty-fifth to one thirtieth width of elytra at base; strongly microreticulate.
Elytra: 2.19–2.45× as long as wide at base; basal margin moderately strongly biangulate, very slightly widening from base over the humeral callosities thence parallel sided or slightly rectilinearly widening to midlength, before narrowing to the broadly rounded apices; lateral margins in apical half, and apices serrate, with acute serrations, the serrations smaller at the elytral apices; sutural margins very slightly raised in apical half; punctation of internal half of elytra very sparse to sparse, consisting of very small slightly lunate punctures; punctation of external half dense to very dense, consisting of much larger transversely ovate punctures; without costae; moderately strongly microreticulate between the punctures.
Hypomeron: contiguously punctate with medium sized, very shallow, ovate and elliptical punctures, the bottom of the punctures strongly microreticulate, with very inconspicuous, very short, silvery pubescence.
Prosternum: with a narrow bead at the anterior margin; the anterior margin at the same level as the area behind; prosternal process strongly widening distally, almost as wide as long at its widest point, densely punctate, with strong round punctures, glabrous.
Mesanepisternum: strongly microreticulate, with some very shallow lunate setae bearing punctures.
Central part of metaventrite, inner part of metacoxa glabrous, sparsely punctate with small weak mostly pin-prick punctures; lateral parts punctate with mostly coalescent very shallow semicircular and lunate punctures; abdominal ventrites glabrous and densely, weakly punctate, with small mostly lunate punctures in central-third, laterally with larger coalescent lunate punctures, with short silvery pubescence.
Apical ventrite (Figs 155, 156): lunate punctures coalescing to form grooves parallel to the lateral margin; excision in ♁ broad, slightly W shaped, with a narrow flange produced at the centre as a wide triangular lobe, with well developed, moderately long, slightly divergent lateral spines (Fig. 155); ♀ moderately broad, deep U-shaped, the very narrow flange not, or very slightly produced at the centre as a small acutely triangular lobe, the lateral spines well developed, slightly divergent (Fig. 156).
Fore tibia: ♁ strongly curved, with a small setal brush at the apex on the anterior face; ♀ tibia less curved, setal brush less obvious or absent.
Mid tibia: ♁ strongly curved without teeth on the ventral face; ♀ slightly curved, without teeth.
Aedeagus (Figs 178, 179): parameres very slightly asymmetrical; apical setae bearing part without spine-like setae, only the usual long fine setae present; median lobe not asymmetrical at tip.
Ovipositor: about 3x as long as wide at widest point.
Comments. This species is most similar to M. iridicolor Carter. See comments under that species for differences.
Etymology. This species is named for the late J. Macqueen, Queensland entomologist, who collected most of the known specimens of the species.
Bionomics. Adults collected on Acacia harpophylla (Brigalow) leaves in October, December and January. Larval host unknown.
description: Published as part of Levey, Brian, 2023, A revision of the Australian species of the genus Melobasis Laporte & Gory 1837 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Part 3 (Revision of the azureipennis, cupricollis, iridicolor and melanura species groups), pp. 1-100 in Zootaxa 5302 (1) on pages 83-85, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5302.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8043117