Agrilus botzi Woodley 2024, new species
Creators: name: Woodley, Norman E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Agrilus
Agrilus botzi

description: Agrilus botzi Woodley, new species
(Fig. 1–6, 13–14)
Type specimens. Holotype ♂: “ ARIZONA: Cochise Co., west / slope of Dragoon Mountains, / Middlemarch Road 21.0 km NE / of Highway 80 1695m / 31°51.586ʹN, 109°57.498ʹW / 21 June 2021 N.E. Woodley // sweeping Sapindus / saponaria var. drummondii / (Hook. & Arn.) L.D. Benson / [Sapindaceae] // HOLOTYPE ♂ / Agrilus / botzi / Woodley 2024” (USNM).
Paratypes: 1♂, 1♀, same data as holotype (1♀, USNM); 3♂, 6♀, same data as holotype except 3 June 2020 (1♂, 1♀, FSCA); 2♀, same data as holotype except 30 May 2022 (1♀, HAHC); 1♀, same data as holotype except 11 June 2022; 1♂, same data as holotype except 26 May 2023; 1♀, same data as holotype except 16 June 2023; 1♀, same data as holotype except 18 June 2024; 3♀, Cochise Co., Middlemarch Road, Milepost 3, 4.8 km NE of Highway 80, 31°45.674ʹN, 110°03.019ʹW, 1370 meters, 29 June 2019, N.E. Woodley, sweeping S. saponaria var. drummondii (1♀, USNM); 1♂, same data except 1 July 2019; 1♂, same data except 30 May 2020 (HAHC); 1♂, same data except 1 June 2020; 1♀, same data except 30 May 2022; 3♂, same data except 10 June 2022 (1♂, USNM); 1♀, same data except 11 June 2022; 1♂, same data except 20 June 2023; 1♂, same data except 18 June 2024; 2♀, Cochise Co., Cochise Stronghold, 31.9457°N, 109.9592°W, 4780 feet, 28 August 2010, F.W. Skillman, Jr. (FWSC); 1♂, Cochise Co., Cochise Stronghold, 31°56.746ʹN, 109°57.555ʹW, 1456 meters, N.E. Woodley, at MV/UV (mercury-vapor/ultraviolet) light; 1♂, Cochise Co., North Tex Canyon Road, 11 km NW of Highway 80, 31°59.550ʹN, 109°18.633ʹW, 1565 meters, 17 June 2022, N.E. Woodley, sweeping S. saponaria var. drummondii; 1♂, same data except J.P. Basham (JPBC); 1♀, Santa Cruz Co., roadside stop on Highway 82, 5.8 km SW of Patagonia, 31°30.419ʹN, 110°48.210ʹW, 1190 meters, 3 July 2018, Jason T. Botz, sweeping S. saponaria var. drummondii, BugGuide voucher specimen, Image #1551068; 1♀, Santa Cruz Co., Highway 82, 4.8 km SW of Patagonia, 31°30.676ʹN, 110°47.918ʹW, 1195 meters, 1 July 2020, S.W. Lingafelter, sweeping S. saponaria var. drummondii. All paratypes have the label PARATYPE ♂ [or ♀] / Agrilus / botzi / Woodley 2024”.
Diagnosis. In Fisher’s (1928) key, A. botzi keys to couplet 73 and best fits A. obsoletoguttatus Gory. Two similar species described subsequent to Fisher, A. limpiae Knull, 1941 and A. exsapindi Vogt, 1949 also key here, and both have been reared from Sapindus. Neither species has a mostly complete elytral vitta, but rather a broken pattern of setal spots. None of these species similar to A. botzi are known from Arizona.
Description. Male (Fig. 1, 3, 5). Overall color coppery-bronze, head, pronotum and legs with a slight greenish tint; pronotum, elytra and venter with distinct setal pattern of white to pale yellowish enhanced by bright white flocculence. Head with frons (Fig. 5) convex, slightly depressed in upper third; surface moderately shiny and feebly rugose, longitudinally rugose on occiput, and clothed with moderately dense, slightly thickened, silvery-white setae; inner eye margins slightly sinuate; clypeus shallowly, arcuately emarginate, separated from frons by a fine transverse carina; antennae extending to posterior margin of pronotum or slightly farther when laid along-side, strongly serrate from antennomere 4. Pronotum with anterior margin slightly produced medially, widest anteriorly, margins subparallel then slightly tapering toward elytral bases; in lateral view marginal carina sinuate, submarginal carina weakly sinuate, the two widely separated anteriorly, converging posteriorly and fused for about posterior one-third; discal region with shallow anteromedial and posteromedial depressions, with more or less transverse rugae medially, these becoming subparallel to pronotal margin laterally; prehumeral carina sharply rounded, straight, extending from posterior angles about one-fourth distance to anterior margin; most of lateral part of pronotum with slightly thickened setae, the patch narrowing posteriorly, and a small patch present medial to the prehumeral carina. Scutellum transversely carinate, with surface finely, transversely microrugose. Elytra (Fig. 1) slightly wider than posterior margin of pronotum; lateral margins nearly straight, slightly constricted at level of first abdominal sternite, exposing dense white setal patch on first laterotergite; with strong basal depression set with slightly thickened setae and white flocculence, similar setae forming longitudinal vittae in line with but separated from basal depressions, gradually converging toward suture at elytral apices; surface imbricately punctate, with short, fine, uniformly distributed setae. Venter with anterior margin of prosternum moderately emarginate medially; prosternal process broad, sides parallel to behind procoxal cavities, then broadly rounded at apex, clothed with semierect, dense, elongate setae that extend to intercoxal projection of first abdominal sternite; lateral portions of thorax, most of metacoxa, large sublateral spots on abdominal sternites 1–2 and lateral spots on abdominal sternites 3–5 densely setose and covered with dense white flocculence obscuring surface (Fig. 3); laterotergites similarly setose with flocculence except second which has inconspicuous setae and is shiny; bare areas of abdominal sternites finely punctate and microrugose, uniformly set with short, inconspicuous setae; marginal groove present on abdominal sternite 5, weakly present on anterior part of sternite 4, submarginal apex of sternite 5 evenly rounded; pygidium with medial carina not projecting. Legs with metacoxal plate with posterior margin vaguely sinuate; femora without ventral denticles; tibiae slender, straight, pro- and mesotibiae with apical mucro-like spine on inner margin; posterior tarsi slightly shorter than tibiae, tarsomere 1 as long as 2–4 united; tarsal claws similar on all legs, with short basal tooth not turned inward. Male genitalia (Fig. 13, 14) tapered posteriorly; parameres very narrow in posterior half; aedeagus broad, tapering to a triangular apex that is very narrowly truncate to slightly rounded. Length 5.72–6.25 mm; width at humeri 1.33–1.48 mm.
Female (Fig. 2, 4, 6). Differs from male as follows: head, including frons (Fig. 6), and pronotum more uniformly colored with elytra and rest of body; antennae shorter, reaching only about two-thirds distance to posterior margin of pronotum when laid along-side; prosternum and ventral medial area of thorax without long, semierect setae; pro- and mesotibiae with apical mucro-like spine on inner margin present but smaller. Length 4.87–6.99 mm; width at humeri 1.15–1.76 mm.
Etymology. The specific epithet, botzi, is named for Jason T. Botz who collected the first specimen from Sapindus which led me to collect further from that host. He has given me a number of interesting buprestids from his collecting over the years.
Distribution. At present this species is known only from southeastern Arizona in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties.
Discussion. Other than a single specimen collected at MV/UV lights, all specimens have been swept from the foliage of Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii (Hook. & Arn.) L. D. Benson (Sapindaceae). This is almost certainly the larval host.
description: Published as part of Woodley, Norman E., 2024, Two new species of Agrilus Curtis from Arizona with some new distributional and host records of buprestids from the southwest USA (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), pp. 1-11 in Insecta Mundi 2024 (75) on pages 2-4, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14662542