Melobasis dividua Levey 2012, sp. n.
Creators: name: Levey, Brian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Melobasis
Melobasis dividua

description: <i>M. dividua</i> sp. n. (Figs. 23, 24, 104, 105, 167) <b>Type locality:</b> W. Australia, Wurarga, Marloo sheep station (28°24'S 116°29'E). <b>Type specimens examined.</b> Holotype &amp;male; (ANIC), Marloo Stn. Wurarga, W.A. 1931–1941 A. Goerling / HOLOTYPE <i>Melobasis dividua</i> sp. n. B. Levey det.; 13 Paratypes as follows. <b>Western Australia:</b> 1&amp;male;, 10&amp;female; (ANIC, BMNH, WAMA) same data as Holotype; 1&amp;female; (IRSNB) Wurarga, 27.1.1938, C. Deuquet; <b>Queensland</b>: 1&amp;female; (IRSNB) Mackay Dec. Ex. coll. Deuquet (undoubtedly wrongly labelled). <b>Diagnosis.</b> General diagnosis: length 10.1–12.5 mm.; head and pronotum dark greenish-bronze with reddishpurple or violet reflections; elytra brownish-copper with the following blue or violet markings: a sutural vitta in the basal quarter; a humeral vitta of about the same length, which extends narrowly along the basal margin to the epipleura which is similarly coloured for its basal quarter; rarely the humeral vitta is joined to the sutural vitta along the basal margin; a pair of median maculae which are sometimes narrowly joined to form a sinuate transverse fascia; an elongate roughly obovate pre-apical macula; underside brownish-bronze sometimes with reddish-purple reflections; lateral parts of underside moderately densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence. Head: upper third of vertex moderately densely punctured with small ovate punctures; remainder of head very densely punctured with ovate punctures which largely coalesce to form short linear series orientated dorsoventrally on the lower half of the vertex and the frontoclypeus; moderately densely clothed with moderately long silvery pubescence; unpunctured areas weakly to moderately strongly microreticulate; clypeal excision fairly deep, U-shaped, with an unpunctured weakly to strongly microreticulate border; clypeal peaks slightly obtusely angled; vertex flat, about two-thirds width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes weakly convex. Antenna: serrate from segment 4–10, the segments becoming progressively smaller and slightly less elongate, the expanded part of each segment more or less quadrate in &amp;male;, that of segment 4 and sometimes 5 more or less triangular in &amp;female;, the rest more or less quadrate. Pronotum: 1.52–1.73 times as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin weakly bisinuate, with a broad often strongly truncated median lobe; posterior margin bisinuate; widest behind, at or in front of mid-length; lateral margins weakly rectilinearly diverging from the posterior angles to widest point, sometimes slightly sinuate near posterior angles, thence weakly to moderately strongly curvilinearly converging to the anterior angles; as wide as or notably narrower at base than elytra at base; lateral carina almost straight or slightly sinuate, about half to twothirds complete; punctation moderately dense in central fifth, consisting of small round punctures, which become progressively larger and denser towards the lateral margin; without or with a narrow almost complete unpunctured midline; shiny to weakly microreticulate; moderately densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence in lateral half. Scutellum: variable in shape, almost round, ovate to quadrate, about one-eleventh to one-twelfth width of elytra at base. Elytra: 2.25–2.39 times as long as wide at base; basal margin moderately strongly bisinuate to biarcuate; parallel sided or very slightly widening from base over the humeral callosities, thence almost parallel sided to the mid-length, before narrowing to the narrow or broadly rounded apices; lateral margins from just beyond mid-length and apices with fairly coarse acute serrations, those at the apices being slightly smaller; sutural margin slightly raised in apical half; rather uniformly punctured, but with traces of one two costate intervals in the inner half; internal of the first costate interval, sparsely to moderately densely punctured with very small round punctures; external to the first costate interval the punctures become larger and dense, to very dense near the lateral margin, where they become ovate and form short transverse series; moderately strongly microreticulate. Proepisternum: very densely punctured with moderately large, shallow, lunate punctures, partly obscured by dense long silvery pubescence. Prosternum: with a narrow bead at the anterior margin, the anterior margin at almost the same level as the area behind; prosternal process strongly widening distally, sparsely punctured with small punctures, with a line of slightly larger punctures near the lateral margin, which are sometimes partly coalescent near the base; glabrous. Mesoepisternum: densely to very densely punctured, with moderately large, shallow, mostly semi lunate punctures; partly obscured by long silvery pubescence. Apical sternite: with the lunate punctures coalescent, their rims forming ridges more or less parallel to the lateral margin over most of the surface, but turned in towards the midline distally; excision fairly deep, much wider than deep in &amp;male; (Fig. 23), as wide or slightly wider than deep in the &amp;female; (Fig. 24); distal margin of the flange straight, the spines slightly developed, shorter than the depth of the flange. Tarsal claws: slightly widened at base, but without a basal tooth. Aedeagus (Fig. 167). Ovipositor: short, slightly longer than wide. <b>Comments.</b> This species is unlikely to be confused with any other. The overall shape and elytral markings are most similar to <i>M. brittoni</i> <b>sp. n.,</b> however in that species the apical sternite does not have lunate punctures forming grooves that turn in towards the midline distally, and the aedeagus is different. <b>Etymology.</b> The name comes from the division of the median fascia of the elytra into two maculae in many specimens. <b>Bionomics.</b> Adults collected in January. Larval hosts unknown.
description: Published as part of <i>Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, pp. 1-107 in Zootaxa 3464</i> on pages 34-35