Melobasis dentata Levey 2023, sp. n.
Creators: name: Levey, Brian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Melobasis
Melobasis dentata

description: M. dentata sp. n.
(Figs 116, 129, 145, 146, 168, 169, 196)
Type locality: Queensland, Iron Pot (near Yeppoon).
Type specimens examined. Holotype ♁ (QMA) Iron Pot. Yeppoon Rd. on wattle. 21.11.59. E.E.A. / Holotype Melobasis dentata sp.n. B. Levey 2012.
Paratypes as follows: 1♀ (BLC) Wattle, Glencoe, 18.1.45, A.H. 1♀ (ANIC) Ipswich, Q. 14. Dec. 58. J. Kerr. 1♁ (TMSHC) 30 km W. of Alpha, Qld. T.M.S. Hanlon. Ex. dead standing Acacia leiocalyx / Coll. 28 August 1999. emerged 6 Jan. 2000.
Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 6.25–6.86 mm; ♁ head blackish-green or golden green; ♀ dull green in upper third, coppery or golden green in lower two-thirds with extensive purple or deep reddish purple reflections; ♁ pronotum golden green with reddish purple reflection in the centre; ♀ deep reddish purple with some dull green reflections at the centre; scutellum coppery; elytra deep lilac with reddish violet reflections, with the following golden green markings: moderately broad sutural vitta in basal seventh; basal margin narrowly golden green; a slightly oblique, broad, vitta extending from the basal margin over the humeral callosity, along the lateral margin and epipleura to level of the hind coxa, where it gradually narrows, before terminating at about the apical fifth of the elytra; underside ♁ predominantly bright reddish violet but with mesanepisternum, mesepimeron, and anterolateral prolongation of ventrite 1 green; ♀ entirely bright reddish violet; laterally sparsely clothed with moderately long silvery pubescence, central part of the prosternum, prosternal process, mesosternum, central parts of metaventrite and central parts abdominal ventrites glabrous.
Head (Fig. 129): very densely to contiguously punctate with small, mostly round punctures, punctures stronger and deeper in ♁; ♁ moderately densely clothed with long silvery pubescence, ♀ very sparsely clothed with silvery pubescence, confined to the lower fifth of the head; spaces between the punctures very weakly microreticulate; clypeal excision shallow, U-shaped, with a barely indicated impunctate border; clypeal peaks obtusely angled; clypeal angles scarcely indicated; vertex flat, about half width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes very strongly convex.
Antenna: segments 4–10 expanded, segment 4 with expansion subquadrate (♁) or subtriangular (♀), segments 5–10 with expansion quadrate, about one and a half times as long as wide, petiolate at base.
Pronotum: 1.63–1.75× as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin moderately strongly bisinuate with a slightly to moderately well developed, broad, median lobe, with a narrow entire beaded margin; posterior margin weakly biangulate; widest at basal third; lateral margins weakly diverging from basal angles to widest point, before almost rectilinearly converging (♀), or weakly curvilinearly converging (♁) to apical angles; basal angles slightly acute; as wide at base as elytra at base; lateral carina sharp, well defined,, almost straight, about two-thirds to four-fifths complete; punctation in central half very dense, consisting of transversely oval and elliptical punctures; punctation in lateral half very dense, the punctures slightly oval and round; spaces between punctures weakly to moderately strongly microreticulate; glabrous.
Scutellum: quadrate, shield shaped, about one-eighteenth width of elytra at base; microreticulate.
Elytra: 1.96–2.13× as long as wide at base; basal margin moderately strongly biangulate, slightly widening from base over the humeral callosities thence very slightly widening to midlength, before narrowing to the rather broadly rounded apices; lateral margins in apical half, and apices serrate, with acute serrations, the serrations much smaller at the elytral apices; sutural margins moderately strongly raised in apical half; without costae or costate intervals; punctation in inner third mostly sparse, consisting of pin-prick and small round punctures; punctation in outer two-thirds very dense to contiguous, consisting of much larger transversely ovate punctures, partly forming transverse series near the lateral margin; weakly to moderately strongly microreticulate between the punctures.
Hypomeron: contiguously punctate with large, very shallow, ovate punctures, the bottom of the punctures weakly microreticulate, with fairly short, adpressed, silvery pubescence, inconspicuous in ♀.
Prosternum: with a broad bead at the anterior margin; the anterior margin at about the same level as the area behind; prosternal process moderately strongly widening distally, almost as wide as long at its widest point, densely punctate, with small ovate punctures, glabrous.
Mesanepisternum: strongly microreticulate, with a few inconspicuous, moderately large, very shallow setae bearing punctures present.
Central part of metaventrite sparsely punctate with small weak mostly pin-prick punctures inner part of metacoxa impunctate, glabrous,; lateral parts of metaventrite and metacoxae contiguously punctate, with fairly large shallow ovate punctures; abdominal ventrites glabrous, and sparsely, to moderately densely, weakly punctate, with small mostly lunate punctures in central-third; laterally with larger, coalescent, lunate punctures, with moderately short silvery pubescence.
Apical ventrite (Figs 145, 146): contiguously punctate with slightly elongate, lunate punctures over the whole surface; excision in ♁ slightly W shaped, rather deep, with a very poorly developed flange, narrowly, triangularly produced at centre; lateral spines broad and flat (Fig. 145); ♀ narrower, but otherwise similar to ♁ (Fig. 146).
Fore tibia: ♁ and ♀ slightly curved, with a very small setal brush at the apex on the anterior face.
Mid tibia: ♁ slightly curved, slightly emarginate on the ventral face in distal third, with a series of strong teeth in the emargination (Fig. 196); ♀ almost straight, without an emargination or teeth.
Aedeagus (Figs 168, 169): parameres symmetrical, the apical setae bearing part about one-third total length of parameres, with numerous small spine like setae in addition to the usual long fine setae; parameres rather strongly narrowed at the base; median lobe symmetrical at tip, with a truncated triangular tip.
Ovipositor: not examined.
Comments. This species is most similar to M. breviantennatus sp. n. and M. suturalis Thomson. See comments under those species.
Etymology. This species is named for the strong teeth at the apex of the mid tibia of the male.
Bionomics. Adults collected on Acacia spp. from November to January. Larval host Acacia leiocalyx.
description: Published as part of Levey, Brian, 2023, A revision of the Australian species of the genus Melobasis Laporte & Gory 1837 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Part 3 (Revision of the azureipennis, cupricollis, iridicolor and melanura species groups), pp. 1-100 in Zootaxa 5302 (1) on pages 72-73, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5302.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8043117