Cymatodera bezarki Rifkind 2022, new species
Creators: name: Rifkind, Jacques
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cleridae
Cymatodera
Cymatodera bezarki

description: Cymatodera bezarki Rifkind, new species
(Fig. 1–5)
Type specimens. Holotype, male. Mexico, Chiapas, Cañon del Sumidero, vii-5-2021, beating, J. Rifkind, J. M. Leavengood, Jr., E. A. Martinez, colls. (CSCA)
Description. (Holotype). Length: 12.5 mm. Form: elongate-obovate, apparently brachypterous (Fig. 1–2). Color: piceous; mouthparts, antennae, and tarsi reddish brown; base of each elytron marked with a small, irregular, dark testaceous macula; elytra with two oblique, sinuate testaceous fascia, one at middle, the other anteapical. Head: measured across eyes, wider than pronotum; antennae elongate, extending past elytral base when laid alongside; antennomeres 3–10 subserrate; antennomere 5 longer than the others; antennomere 11 narrowed apically; surface finely, densely punctate and finely rugulose, moderately densely clothed with short, adpressed pale setae, interspersed with fewer, longer, suberect pale setae. Pronotum: more than 2× as long as broad, broadest across middle; anterior transverse impression interrupted on each side above by a shallow tumescence; subbasal tumescences prominent; surface shining, shallowly, transversely rugose, rather sparsely clothed with fine, pale, short adpressed setae, and fewer suberect and erect setae of moderate length. Elytra: elongate (more than 2× as long as wide), narrowed at anterior margin, expanded posteriorly, broadest at posterior 1/3; apices separately rounded and dehiscent; surface shining, coarsely, deeply punctate on anterior 1/2, punctures smaller and less densely arranged posteriorly; each elytron with a pair of shallow longitudinal carinae at middle, extending from base to apical 1/6; vestiture moderately dense and conspicuous, composed primarily of suberect, fine setae of medium length. Metasternum: surface shallowly, feebly punctate laterally, punctate-asperate ventrally, but without spicules or tubercles; surface clothed with long, fine setae. Abdomen: surface shining, ventrites 1–4 rugulose-punctate and sparsely,finely setose anteriorly, broadly glabrous along posterior margins; ventrite 5 with surface entirely densely rugulose-punctate, posterior margin broadly, arcuately emarginate; ventrite 6 (Fig. 3–4) narrow at middle, produced on each side as an elongate spatulate projection, canted sideways and ventrally, setose below, with a dense, conspicuous brush of tawny setae covering the interior ventral margin; dorsal surface of projection glabrous in contrast. Sternite 6 (Fig. 3) oblong, slightly tapered laterally, posterior margin feebly rounded, surface shining; underside moderately concave. Aedeagus: not dissected.
Variation. Only the holotype is known.
Etymology. The specific epithet honors Larry Bezark, in recognition of his many contributions to the taxonomy of Cerambycidae.
Distribution. Cymatodera bezarki is known from Cañon del Sumidero in Chiapas state, Mexico.
Natural history. The holotype was collected by beating trailside vegetation on a path leading off the Sumidero highway (Fig. 5). Specimens of Cymatodera sallei Thomson were collected in close proximity, and the area is reported habitat for several other Cymatodera species.
Diagnosis. A unique combination of body shape, elytral markings and sculpturing, and features of the male pygidium will serve to distinguish this species from congeners. The new species is most similar to Cymatodera sinuosa Burke 2013, known from El Salvador and Honduras, and C. parallela Gorham 1882, known from Guatemala. By comparison with C. sinuosa, C. bezarki has the dorsum more distinctly setose, and the postmedial dark elytral band narrower and more sinuate; also, in the male of C. bezarki, the hind angles of the sixth abdominal ventrite are not merely produced as in C. sinuosa, but are extended, dorsoventrally flattened, and spatulate (Fig. 3). From C. parallela, C. bezarki can be distinguished as follows: elytra obovate versus parallel-sided; elytral anterior 1/3 mostly dark versus mostly testaceous; sixth abdominal sternite of male rounded posteriorly versus inflected at middle.
description: Published as part of Rifkind, Jacques, 2022, New distributional records for Mexican Cleridae (Coleoptera) with the description of three new species, pp. 1-12 in Insecta Mundi 2022 (963) on pages 6-7, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7616600