Agrilaxia (Agrilaxia) nigra Bílý, 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Bílý, Svatopluk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Agrilaxia
Agrilaxia nigra

description: Agrilaxia (Agrilaxia) nigra sp. nov.
(Figs 3, 7, 12)
Type locality. French Guiana, Montagne des Chevaux.
Type specimen. Holotype (male, NMPC): “ Guyane Française, M.gne [Montagne] des Chevaux, 19.x.2013, S. Brûlé leg.”.
Diagnosis. Small (4.7 mm), slender, subcylindrical, entirely black, ventral surface with very weak, brassy lustre (Fig. 3).
Description of the male holotype. Head large, not prognathous, as wide as anterior pronotal margin; anterior margin of frontoclypeus straight, frons flat; vertex weakly convex, as wide as width of eye; eyes large, elliptical, not projecting beyond outline of head; antennae short reaching posterior third of lateral pronotal margins when laid alongside; scape slightly claviform, 5 times as long as wide, pedicel ovoid, twice as long as wide; third antennomere subcylindrical, 1.5 times as long as wide, antennomeres 4–10 triangular to trapezoidal, 1.2–1.5 times as wide as long, terminal antennomere rhomboid, slightly longer than wide; sculpture consisting of small, fine, simple punctures on frons and small, dense, poorly defined, polygonal cells without central grains on vertex.
Pronotum rather convex, 1.3 times as wide as long with wide, deep lateroposterior depressions; anterior margin bisinuate with wide median lobe, posterior margin weakly bisinuate; lateral margins very slightly curved, emarginate anterior to posterior angles; prescutellar pit deep, laterally separated by small, prominent swellings; “agriloid” carina small, short, weakly developed, posterior angles rectangular; sculpture consisting of very small, polygonal cells with small, flat central grains. Scutellum small, pentagonal, almost twice as wide as long.
Elytra slender, flattened, 3.3 times as long as wide, slightly caudiform; humeral callosities small, not projecting beyond outline of elytra; subhumeral carina fine, almost reaching elytral mid-length, elytral apex with very fine, almost indistinct serrations; basal, transverse elytral depressions very wide, deep, reaching scutellum; elytra smooth, with very weak, nearly indistinct traces of striae on anterior third, sculpture consisting of very fine microsculpture.
Ventral surface lustrous, with fine eye-shaped sculpture on abdominal ventrites and fine eye-shaped sculpture on pro- and metasternum; prosternal process flat, weakly widening posterior to procoxae, anterior margin of prosternum elevated perpendicularly to surface of prosternum (Fig. 26 in Bílý & Brûlé, 2013), rather deeply emarginate medially; anal ventrite truncate with fine lateral serrations, anal tergite obtusely rounded and sharply serrate (Fig. 7). Legs moderately long, protibiae very slightly curved, meso- and metatibiae straight; tarsal claws brown, hook-shaped, only very slightly enlarged at base.
Aedeagus (Fig. 12) very short, widely spindle-shaped, apical half of parameres membraneous, median lobe wide, pointed apically.
Measurement. Length: 4.7 mm; width: 1.0 mm.
Sexual dimorphism. Female unknown.
Bionomy. Unknown.
Etymology. The species epithet is derived from the Latin adjective “ niger ” (black) since this species is entirely black.
Differential diagnosis. Agrilaxia (Agrilaxia) nigra sp. nov. is rather similar to the sympatric species A. (A.) chrysifrons (Kerremans, 1896) from which it differs by the flat, black frons (frons weakly depressed and green in A. (A.) chrysifrons), black, pentagonal scutellum (golden green, semicircular scutellum in A. (A.) chrysifrons), shorter subhumeral carina, well developed central grains on pronotum, by the sharply serrate anal tergite (only finely serrate in A. (A.) chrysifrons) and by the form of the male genitalia (Figs 12 vs. 14).
Distribution. French Guiana.
description: Published as part of Bílý, Svatopluk, 2017, A study of the genus Agrilaxia Kerremans, 1903 from French Guiana (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Anthaxiini), pp. 65-72 in Zootaxa 4216 (1) on page 70, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.229828