Spilopyra scratchley Reid & Beatson 2010, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Reid, C. A. M.
name: Beatson, M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Chrysomelidae
Spilopyra
Spilopyra scratchley

description: Spilopyra scratchley sp. nov.   
(Figs 2, 8, 21, 27, 44, 50, 66, 87, 100, 111, 118)  
 Material examined. Holotype: 1♀ / Neneba, Mount Scratchley [Papua New Guinea, approximately 8:43S 147:28E], 4−5000', xi.1896, A. Giulianetti (QMB).   
 Description [female only, antennomeres 4−11 missing]. Length: 10mm. Body dark reddish-brown with metallic reflections, appendages red except tarsomeres 1−3, 5, and extreme apices tibiae metallic purplishblue, labrum yellowish-red. Metallic reflections on body and elytra distributed as follows: extruded part of head capsule: golden-green, with purple diamond on middle of vertex, distant from eyes laterally and not extending to clypeus anteriorly; thorax: pronotum: all dorsal margins broadly golden-green, not extended towards disc at middle of base and apex, remainder purple; venter feebly metallic; scutellum golden-green, mesoventrite feebly metallic; elytra purple, with complete transverse green band at middle of basal half, transverse green patch at middle of apical half not connected with either suture or epipleuron, broadly green sutural stripe from this patch to elytral apex, green outer elytral edge from near this patch to apex; metaventrite feebly metallic, green, lateral and posterior margins purple; metepisternum purple; abdominal ventrites feebly metallic purple.   
Head: punctures minute (smaller than eye facets) and sparse (separated by>3 diameters), larger (diameter greater than eye facet) and denser on between eyes and at posterior; almost glabrous, but with 3 trichobothria at inner margin of eye, short slightly elevated setae posterior and anterior to eye and short recumbent setae on clypeus; inner margin of eye smooth, ungrooved; medially not depressed between eyes, except base of clypeus, without groove on midline of vertex; apical margin clypeus deeply concave; frontoclypeal suture effaced at middle, sides deeply grooved; eyes separated by c. 5 times eye widths; gena c. 0.28 times eye length; antennae c. 5 times socket diameters apart; antennomere 2 c. 0.8 times first, 2<3<1; apical maxillary palpomere elongate, fusiform, length c. 1.3 times preapical.  
 Thorax: pronotal punctures fine (larger than on middle of head) and sparse (generally separated by>3 diameters), becoming larger (c. 2 times discal puncture width) at base; apparently glabrous, except trichobothrium in each angle (seta broken off); pronotal width 1.7 times length, lateral margins slightly sinuate between prominent, slightly acute anterior angles and 90° posterior angles; pronotal disc almost evenly convex, but with faint lateral median depressions; anterior margination incomplete, absent from middle third; hypomeron smooth, not obviously punctured or setose; prosternal process slightly elevated between coxae, almost impunctate and glabrous, approximately quadrate, but with elongate apico-lateral lobes and two short and rounded apical median lobes (apex bilobed); scutellum rounded-triangular, smooth and impunctate; elytra apparently glabrous; elytron with deep transverse depression from suture to epipleuron, about 1/3 rd from base, prominently angular humerus projecting laterally from between base of 5 th stria and epipleuron, apical angle c. 90°; strial punctures large and deep throughout (similar to pronotal base), larger in and beyond transverse depression; elytra striate, with 9 distinct striae and sutural stria; striae partly confused by large punctures present in transverse depression (especially at sides), in basal half between 1 st and 2 nd striae and 7 th and 8 th striae, and between 9 th stria and epipleuron; upper margin epipleuron incomplete, not reaching base of elytron at humerus; mesoventrite median process transverse, strongly arched to strongly concave apical margin, with shallow lateral depressions; metaventrite shining, minutely and sparsely punctured and pubescent; metaventrite anterior lobe shallowly depressed, without margination, remainder of anterior border simply margined, without crenulation or pitting; metepisternum shining and impunctate or almost so; hind femora smooth and sparsely punctured; tibiae not swollen in apical half, metatibia without preapical long setae on inner face; tibiae smooth, finely and sparsely punctured, without keels; second metatarsomere elongate.   
Abdomen: ventrites I−V with 1−3 pairs of long setae near midline, and minute sparse recumbent setae, denser on ventrites IV−V; ventrite I with basal lateral keel, 2/3 length ventrite at middle, remaining ventrites without keels; apex ventrite V rounded; apex female sternite VIII deeply concave, base with short elongate apodeme; spermatheca U-shaped with swollen but slightly pointed apex, duct densely but irregularly coiled.  
 Notes. Etymology: named from the type locality, as a noun in apposition.   
 Spilopyra scratchley is known from a single specimen collected in the eastern highlands of New Guinea. The collector, Giulianetti, was in Neneba, Adjibara River, from 1-9 November (van Steenis-Kruseman 1950). We have been unable to locate these names on a map, but the height (1300−1600m) and Giulanetti’s subsequent journey indicate that Neneba was in an upper valley of one of the rivers flowing southwest from Mount Scratchley.
description: Published as part of Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2010, Revision of the Australo-Papuan genus Spilopyra Baly (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Spilopyrinae), pp. 1-32 in Zootaxa 2692 (1) on pages 21-23, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2486.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5304597