Lemodes (Lagriomorpha) gressitti Young, 2012, new species
Creators: name: Young, Daniel K.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Anthicidae
Lemodes
Lemodes gressitti

description: Lemodes (Lagriomorpha) gressitti, new species
(Figs. 7–9)
Description. Length 5.3 mm (n=1). Dorsal and ventral surfaces, legs, and antennae moderately densely covered with short, mostly decumbent setae, dorsum and elytra also with a few longer, semierect to erect setae.
Adult female (Dorsal habitus: Fig. 7). Head and mouthparts coppery-orange; mandibles rufopiceous, at least in part. Dorsal surface of head (Fig. 8) confusedly, conspicuously, densely punctate, lateral and ventral aspects with punctures less coarse. Compound eyes small, coarsely-faceted, slightly protruding. Tempora (measured from cranial neck constriction anteriorly to posterior rim of compound eye) 0.77X dorso-longitudinal length of compound eye. Antennae with antennomere 1 amber, antennomeres 2–3 amber suffused with rufopiceous pigmentation, antennomeres 4–9 rufopiceous, antennomeres 10–11 creamy yellowish-orange; antennae densely covered with stout, semierect and erect setae; antennomeres 4–10 stout, submoniliform; 11th antennomere nearly 1/2 again as long as antennomere 10, bluntly acuminate distally. Terminal segment of maxillary palpus short, slightly expanded and bluntly rounded distally. Visible dorsal and ventral surfaces of thorax coppery-orange; pronotum (Fig. 9) hourglass-shaped, widest anterad the middle, densely covered with coppery-orange setae, coarsely punctate with surface finely punctulate between larger punctures; prothoracic coxal cavities widely open externally; scutellum flat, quadrate, punctate, clothed in retrorsely decumbent, orange to coppery-orange setae; mesosternum, metasternum and mesothoracic episterna with scattered, large, shallow punctures; mesothoracic episterna meeting anteromesad the mesosternum. Legs amber; paired, dorsal tibial carinae virtually absent; tibial spurs short, stout; penultimate tarsomere slightly dilated, bilobed; tarsal claws simple. Elytra (Fig. 7) coppery-orange in basal third and distal 1/7, remainder metallic blue-violet, with anterior margin of dark pigmentation conspicuously advancing along elytral sutures; posterior margin of dark pigmentation narrowly advancing posteriorly along sutures; each elytron bearing a swirling patch of decumbent, white setae in the distal 1/2, juxtaposed between the coppery-orange and blue-violet line (possibly associated with a glandular or sensory pore); elytra elongate, 2.25X longer than width across subbasal humeral area, covering abdomen, margins subparallel along much of length, very slightly wider in apical 3/4; elytral surface rather coarsely, somewhat deeply, confusedly punctate, surface between punctures finely punctulate. Metathoracic wings fully developed. Ventral surface of abdomen amber.
Type. Holotype (♀, point-mounted): [First label]: NEW GUINEA (NE)// Wum, Upper Jimmi V.// 840m. VII- 18 -[19]’55; [Second label]: J. L. Gressitt// Collector; [Third label]: Auto-Montaged// digital image(s)// per D. K. Young; [Fourth label]: HOLOTYPE:// Lemodes // (Lagriomorpha)// gressitti // Young. (BPBM)
Distribution. As detailed above, L. gressitti is presently known only from the type locality, the village of Wum, in the Western Highlands District of Papua New Guinea; near - 5.566366° S, 144.583785° E.
Diagnosis. Within the subgenus Lagriomorpha, the strongly hourglass-shaped pronotum together with distinctly bicolored elytra having the anterior advancement of the blue-violet pigmentation along the sutures is shared between L. gressitti (Fig. 7) and L. angulata (Fig. 1). Among other differences, L. angulata lacks the apical orangish pigmented region of the elytra exhibited by L. gressitti.
Etymology. The specific epithet, gressitti, is a patronym based on the family name, “Gressitt.” I am pleased to name this species in honor of its collector, a renowned coleopterist, the late Dr. J. Linsley (Lin) Gressitt (1914– 1982). His contributions to entomology in the Pacific region were vast; I had the pleasure of meeting him once in Hawaii, six years before his – and his wife’s – untimely deaths in a plane crash in China.
description: Published as part of Young, Daniel K., 2012, Five new species of Lemodes (Lagriomorpha) (Coleoptera: Anthicidae: Lemodinae) from Indonesian and Papuan New Guinea with a revised key to the species, pp. 15-27 in Zootaxa 3316 on page 19, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.209580