Paragrilus burkei Hespenheide, new species
Creators: name: Hespenheide, Henry A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2002
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Paragrilus
Paragrilus burkei

description: Paragrilus burkei Hespenheide, new species
(Figs. 16, 32)
Holotype male: Broadly agriliform, moderately flattened above, head with faint golden reflections, pronotum reddish purple, elytra dark blue, black beneath; front somewhat densely silvery setose on lower half except along midline; 4.0 mm long. Head with front convex, shallowly impressed along midline on upper 2/3; ventral margin distinctly produced, quadrate, shallowly emarginate, angles acute; surface finely punctate, faintly shagreened. Pronotum flattened, widest near apex; prehumeral callosity small but prominent, strongly indicated by broad lateral depressions that extend obliquely to lateral margins; prehumeral callosity weakly produced outward and anteriorly to form ridge above and roughly parallel to marginal carina; anterior angles rounded; disc shallowly depressed along basal margin interior to bases of lateral depressions, except raised before scutellum; surface weakly rugose, rugae nearly obsolete at anterior margin, weakly shagreened. Scutellum small, triangular. Elytra fine posthumeral carina extending somewhat beyond hind coxae, surface weakly rugose, regularly convex; apices broadly rounded. Hind coxae very narrow, posterior angles subquadrate. Male genitalia pale brownish (Fig. 32).
Allotype female: As male, except epistoma sparsely short silvery setose, pronotum dark blue, 4.5 mm long.
Holotype: Arizona, Cochise Co., 8 mi E Sierra Vista, 11.VIII.1964, H.R. Burke & J. Apperson (TAMU, to be deposited in USNM).
Allotype: México: Durango, El Salto, 24.VIII.1960, G.B. Vogt (CLBC).
Paratypes: México: Durango, same data as Allotype (3, CLBC); Tamaulipas, Bocatoma, 7 km SSE Gomez Farias, 19­23, 27­28.V.1979, E.G. Riley (3, GHNC); 13.VII.1982, R. Turnbow (1, TAMU); 5 mi SSE Gomez Farias, 19­20.VII.1970, Murray, Phelps, Hart, Schaffner (1, TAMU); 2 mi SE Gomez Farias, 20.VII.1970, Murray, Phelps, Hart, Schaffner (1, SGWC); nr. Gomez Farias, Rio Frio, 05.VI.1983, M. Kualbars (1, RLWE); Tampico, 30.VI.1964, D.S. Verity (3, DSVC); Villa Juarez, 800’, 17.VI.1937, M.A. Embury (1, CASC); Nuevo Leon, Santa Rosa Canyon, 28 km W Linares, 17.VII.1988, R. Turnbow (2, GHNC); 7 mi W El Cercado, 2800’, 27.VI.1970, E.M. & J.L. Fisher (4, RLWE); 8.6 mi SW Montemorelos on Rayones Rd., 01.VI.1983, R. Anderson (1, RLWE); 21.7 mi E Galeana, 10.VII.1987, B.K. Dozier (1, FSCA); San Luis Potosi, Hwy. 85 8 mi S Cd. Valles, 800’, 24.VII.1982, C.W. & L. O’Brien & G. Wibmer (1, RLWE); Hwy. 80 7 mi W El Naranjo, 1800’, 19.VI.1983, C.W. & L. O’Brien & G.B. Marshall (2, CLBC); Valles, 29.VIII.1956, R. & K. Dreisbach (1, MSUC); El Salto Falls, 17.VI.1955, R.E. Beer & party (1, SEMC); Veracruz, 5 mi W Palma Sola, 28.VII.1974, Clark, Murray, Ashe, Schaffner (1, TAMU); Puente National [sic], 02.IX.1980, J.B. Karren #21 (1, EMUS); Hwy. 150, 2 mi E Cuitlahuac, 03.VII.1965, G.H. Nelson (1, GHNC); Tolome, nr Rinconada, 27.VII.1955, P. & C. Vaurie (3, AMNH); Oaxaca, 48 mi E La Ventosa, 21.VII.1963, J. Doyen (1, EMEC); Jalisco, 20 mi NE Bahia de Navidad, 14.VII.1982, F.G. Andrews (1, CSCA); Sinaloa, 3 mi E Malpicia, 16­17.VII.1982, J. Cope (1, CLBC); 7 mi N Mazatlan, 22.VIII.1963, E.L. Sleeper (1, CASC); Chupaderos, 17.VIII.1963, E.L. Sleeper (1, CASC); 7 mi S Culiacan, 23.VIII.1960, R.L. Westcott (1, RLWE); 34 mi E Villa Union, 27.VIII.1960, R.L. Westcott (10, RLWC, DSVC); Chiapas, 8 mi E Rizo de Oro, Hwy #190, 22.VI.1985, Askevold & Heffern (1, TCMC), 35 mi W Tuxtla Gutierrez, 16.VIII.1972, G.F. & S. Hevel (1, USNM), Oaxaca border on Pan­Am Hwy, 800 m, 09.VI.1990, H.& A. Howden (1, CMNC); Campeche, km 37, Hwy 24, Campeche­Tenabo, 30.VII.1990, C.W. & L.B. O’Brien (2, SGWC); Yucatan, Tres Linteles, Chichen Itza, 6.VII.1948, C. Goodnight (1, AMNH).
Other specimens examined: Nicaragua: Leon, L Asososca, 21.IX.1994, J.M. Maes (7, SEAN).
Host: Unknown.
Etymology: This species is named in honor of one of the collectors of the Holotype, Horace Burke; he and his students have studied the weevil subfamily Anthonominae, whose hosts include the Malvaceae.
Discussion: Male specimens vary from 3.2­4.4 mm in length (mean = 3.76 mm, N = 30); females vary from 3.3­4.55 mm in length (mean = 3.96 mm, N = 28). Although similar in most respects, the Nicaraguan specimens have the pronotum more coarsely rugose and less strongly shining, and the anterior portion of the lateral margins of the pronotum more strongly angulate. These specimens are widely separated geographically from the nearest collections in México and may represent a distinct species.
description: Published as part of Hespenheide, Henry A., 2002, A review of North and Central American Paragrilus Saunders, 1871 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Agrilinae), pp. 1-28 in Zootaxa 43 on pages 22-24, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.155677