Brachelytrium (Brachelytrium) purpureiventre Bílý & Bellamy, 2010, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Bílý, Svatopluk
name: Bellamy, Charles L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Brachelytrium
Brachelytrium purpureiventre

description: Brachelytrium (Brachelytrium) purpureiventre sp. nov.
(Fig. 5)
Specimen examined. Holotype, female (NMPC): Kenya, Road Voi-Taveta, near Tsavo West N[ational]. P[ark]. gate, 7.xi.2005, leg. Sakalian & Curletti.
Diagnosis. Medium-sized (5.2 mm), convex, rather lustrous, stout, subparallel; dorsal surface bronze with fine red reflections, frons red-bronze, scutellum black; ventral surface black-bronze, abdominal ventrites and ventral surface of legs with purple lustre; dorsal surface asetose, frons with very short, nearly invisible, white pubescence; ventral surface with very fine, short, sparse, grey pubescence.
Description of the female holotype. Length: 5.2 mm; width: 1.9 mm. Head small, partly retracted into prothorax, narrower than anterior pronotal margin; anterior margin of frontoclypeus widely, shallowly emarginate; frons flat with wide, rounded, shallow, postclypeal depression; vertex as wide as width of eye; eyes small, reniform, not projecting beyond outline of head; antennae short, hardly reaching mid-length of lateral pronotal margins when laid alongside; scape pyriform, nearly 4 times as long as wide, slightly curved; pedicel ovoid, 1.5 times as long as wide; antennomere 3 sharply triangular, 1.3 times as long as wide; antennomeres 4–10 obtusely triangular to trapezoidal; terminal antennomere nearly spherical with fine anterolateral emargination; sculpture of head consisting of rounded to polygonal cells with fine central grains.
Pronotum convex, twice as wide as long with well-developed lateroposterior depressions, slightly wider than elytra; anterior margin widely emarginate with indistinct median lobe; posterior margin slightly biarcuate; lateral margins regularly rounded, maximum width at anterior 1/3; sculpture consisting of regular, polygonal cells with well-developed central grains. Scutellum convex, microsculptured, subtriangular, distinctly longer than wide.
Elytra subparallel, 1.5 times as long as wide, rather convex, uneven, widely rounded at posterior 1/5; humeral swellings well-developed; transverse, basal depressions wide, deep, nearly reaching scutellum; epipleuron wide, extending to apex; sculpture punctato-rugose, disc lustrous with fine sculpture consisting of transversely widened punctures.
Ventral surface lustrous, rather roughly ocellate, metasternum with well-developed central grais; abdominal ventrites with fine, longitudinally prolonged ocellation; posterior margin of anal ventrite obtusely rounded, finely serrate; anal ventrite widely grooved along entire margin. Legs relatively short; meso- and metatibiae straight, very slightly enlarged posteriorly. Tarsal claws thin, hook-shaped, slightly enlarged at base.
Male unknown.
Etymology. The specific epithet describes the purple-bronze coloration of abdominal ventrites.
Distribution. Kenya.
Differential diagnosis. Brachelytrium (B.) purpureiventre sp. nov. is very similar to B. (B.) straussae Bílý & Bellamy, 2000 from which it differs (except for the distribution) by the deeply depressed frons, subparallel and somewhat longer elytra and by the absence of tomentose patches on ventral surface (B. (B.) straussae possesses straight frontoclypeus, flat frons, posteriorly enlarged elytra which are 1.3 times as long as wide and numerous patches of white tomentum on ventral surface).
description: Published as part of Bílý, Svatopluk & Bellamy, Charles L., 2010, Supplement to the revision of the genus Brachelytrium Obenberger, 1923 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Buprestinae: Anthaxiini), pp. 15-27 in Zootaxa 2721 on pages 20-21, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.199912