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

description: <i>M. brevis</i> sp. n. (Figs. 98, 166, 213) <b>Type locality:</b> W. Australia, Wurarga, Marloo sheep station (28°24'S 116°29'E). <b>Type specimen examined.</b> Holotype &amp;male; (WAMA): 37–4496/7 Wurarga/ M. marlooensis /. My determination label. Paratypes as follows. <b>Western Australia:</b> 4 &amp;female; (NMWC, TMSHC) Canegrass, 20.1.1937, on <i>Acacia</i> [ex. H.W. Brown coll.] <b>Diagnosis.</b> General diagnosis: length 10.5–12.0 mm; head brownish-bronze; pronotum brownish-bronze with an indigo reflection laterally; elytra yellowish-bronze with the apices reddish-purple, some of the specimens from Canegrass have faint indications of a red humeral vitta, sutural vitta and a small median macula; underside brownish-bronze with a reddish-purple reflections laterally; lateral parts of underside moderately densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence. Head: upper third of vertex moderately densely punctured with small almost round punctures; remainder of head very densely punctured with ovate punctures which largely coalesce to form short linear series orientated dorso-ventrally 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 shallow, U-shaped, with an unpunctured weakly microreticulate border; clypeal peaks slightly obtusely angled; vertex flat, slightly less than half 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. Pronotum: 1.62–1.77 times as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin moderately strongly bisinuate, with a very broad truncated median lobe; posterior margin bisinuate; widest at posterior angles; lateral margins slightly convergent for a short distance in front of the posterior angles before very slightly diverging to just beyond mid-length, then weakly curvilinearly converging to the anterior angles; as wide or very slightly narrower at base than elytra at base; lateral carina almost straight or slightly sinuate, about two-thirds to three-quarters complete; punctation moderately dense in central half, consisting of small round punctures, which become progressively larger and denser towards the lateral margin; with a narrow almost complete unpunctured midline; very weakly microreticulate with very tiny pin-prick punctures visible at high magnification between the large punctures; fairly densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence in lateral half. Scutellum: almost quadrate, about one-tenth width of elytra at base. Elytra: 1.98–2.06 times as long as wide at base; basal margin moderately strongly biarcuate; very slightly widening from base over the humeral callosities, thence almost parallel sided to the mid-length, before narrowing to the 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 third; rather uniformly punctured but with traces of one or two costate intervals in the inner half; punctation in the inner half moderately dense, the punctures small and round, becoming denser, larger and slightly ovate laterally; weakly microreticulate. Proepisternum: very densely punctured with moderately large, shallow, lunate punctures, partly obscured by dense long silvery pubescence. Prosternum: without a bead at the anterior margin, the anterior margin at almost the same level as the area behind; prosternal process slightly widening distally, very sparsely punctured with pin-prick punctures, with a line of slightly larger punctures near the unpunctured lateral margin; glabrous. Mesoepisternum: very densely punctured, with fairly small, shallow, variably shaped punctures; partly obscured by long silvery pubescence. Apical sternite (Fig. 213): 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, wider than deep, the distal margin of the flange straight, the spines strongly developed, as long as the depth of the flange in both sexes. Tarsal claws: slightly widened at base but without a basal tooth. Aedeagus (Fig. 166): apex of median lobe obtusely pointed. <b>Comments.</b> This species is closely related to <i>M. burnsi</i> <b>sp. n.</b> and it is possible it is only a form of that species which lacks distinct elytral markings. The aedeagus is very similar, but slightly different. Only more males will resolve this problem. <b>Etymology.</b> This species is named from its relatively broad and short form. <b>Bionomics.</b> Adult collected in January on <i>Acacia</i> (Fabaceae). Larval hosts unknown.
description: Published as part of <i>Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, pp. 1-107 in Zootaxa 3464</i> on pages 29-30