Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) caerulea Bílý 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Bílý, Svatopluk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Anthaxia
Anthaxia caerulea

description: Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) caerulea sp. nov.
(Figs. 8, 17, 24)
Type lopcality: DRC, Prov. Kasai Occidental, Lulua.
Type specimens. Holotype (male, NMPC): “ Musée du Congo, Lulua: Kapanga, ii.1933, G. F. Overlaet ”; paratype (male, MRAC): the same data.
Diagnosis. Medium-sized (7.5–8.6 mm), strongly wedge-shaped, lustrous; dorsal surface blue-green, frons black with violet tinge, pronotal disc and anterior pronotal angles black with green tinge, scutellum with golden-red tinge; ventral surface green to golden green, prosternum black; frons with short, sparse, white pubescence, elytra with rather short, rusty, recumbent pubescence; ventral surface with short, sparse, white pubescence.
Description of the male holotype. Head rather small, partly retracted into prothorax, as wide as anterior pronotal margin; frons flat, anterior margin of frontoclypeus shallowly emarginate; vertex about 0.5 times as wide as width of eye; eyes large, narrowly reniform, weakly projecting beyond outline of head; sculpture consisting of fine, dense, simple punctures; antennae relatively short, weakly overlapping midlength of lateral, pronotal margins when laid alongside; scape claviform, weakly curved, 3.5 times as long as wide, pedicel suboval, about 1.5 times as long as wide; third antennomere weakly triangular, about 1.5 times as long as wide, antennomeres 4–10 trapezoidal, 1.0–1.5 times as long as wide, terminal antennomere rhomboidal, twice as long as wide.
Pronotum moderately convex, twice as wide as long with wide, deep lateroposterior depressions, space between them flat; anterior margin almost straight with very weak medial lobe, posteror margin almost straight; lateral margins widely, regularly rounded, posterior angles obtuse-angled; maximum width at anterior third; sculpture consisting of very fine, somewhat transverse, polygonal cells without central grains on disc and fine, dense, polygonal cells with central grains in lateroposterior depressions. Scutellum widely triangular, weakly depressed, about 1.3 times as wide as long.
Elytra strongly wedge-shaped, twice as long as wide, weakly uneven; posterior third of lateral margins, finely, sharply serrate, basal, transverse depressions wide, deep, reaching scutellum; humeral callosities small, not projecting beyond elytral outline, subhumeral lobe large, lateral emargination deep, very wide; sculpture almost homogeneous, consisting of fine, irregular punctures, humeral third with fine, transverse rugae.
Ventral surface lustrous with fine ocellate punctation and very short, sparse, recumbent, white pubescence; prosternal process wide, flat, simply, densely punctured, as wide as long, sharply pointed apically; anal ventrite apically truncate to weakly emarginate with sharp lateral serrations. Legs relatively long, protibiae weakly curved, [mesotibiae missing] metatibiae (Fig. 24) flattened, deeply emarginate at distal third with sharp serrations at midlength; tarsi long, only slightly shorter than corresponding tibiae, tarsal claws weakly hook-shaped, not enlarged at base.
Aedeagus (Fig. 17) widely spindle-shaped, dorsoventrally flattened, parameres deeply constricted at distal third, with rather large, sharp, dorsolateral projection; median lobe obtusely pointed apically.
Measurements. Length: 7.5–8.6 mm (holotype 8.6 mm); width: 2.7–3.3 mm (holotype 3.3 mm).
Female unknown.
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin expression for the sky blue colour “ caeruleus ”.
Distribution. Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Differential diagnosis. Besides the blue colouration Anthaxia (H.) caerulea sp. nov. differs from other species of the A. (H.) dispar species-group by the sculpture of the pronotal disc which consists of the fine, transverse cells without central grains, truncate to weakly emarginate anal ventrite, relatively long elytra (twice as long as wide) and also by the different shape of aedeagus (Fig. 17) and male metatibiae (Fig. 24).
Anthaxia (H.) caerulea sp. nov. seems to be distributed in the humid, tropical part of DRC unlike the sympatric A. (H.) dispar which follows the less humid, savanna biotopes of the eastern and southern parts of DRC. More specimens of A. (H.) caerulea sp. nov. are needed, of course, for any further speculations.
description: Published as part of Bílý, Svatopluk, 2020, A revision of the Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) dispar Kerremans species-group (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Anthaxiini), pp. 522-534 in Zootaxa 4851 (3) on pages 531-532, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4851.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/4408005