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

description: Agrilaxia (Agrilaxia) angustiptera sp. nov.
(Figs 2, 5, 11)
Type locality. French Guiana, Montagne des Chevaux.
Type specimens. Holotype (male, NMPC): “French Guyane, Montagne des Chevaux, 27.ix.2014, SEAG team leg. // Polytrap lumineaux automatique avec rampe LED rose”; allotype (female, NMPC): the same data.
Diagnosis. Medium-sized (6.1–6.6 mm), elongate, slightly flattened dorsally, dark with silky lustre (Fig. 2); dorsal surface black, elytra and lateral sides of pronotum with red or weak purple lustre, frons, antennae and legs blue-green; ventral surface bronze.
Description of the male holotype. Head large, prognathous, distinctly wider than anterior pronotal margin; anterior margin of frontoclypeus widely emarginate, frons narrow, flat, medially slightly depressed, vertex weakly grooved, 0.8 times as wide as width of eye; eyes very large, elliptical but not projecting beyond outline of head; antennae long, reaching posterior third of lateral pronotal margins when laid alongside; scape weakly claviform, 5.5 times as long as wide, pedicel ovoid, twice as long as wide; third antennomere almost subcylindrical, twice as long as wide, fourth antennomere triangular, 1.4 times as wide as long; antennomeres 5–10 trapezoidal, 0.8–1.0 times as wide as long, terminal antennomere axe-head shaped, about as long as wide; sculpture consisting of very small, not very dense, rounded cells with tiny central grains.
Pronotum rather convex, 1.2 times as long as wide with large, wide, lateroposterior depressions and small, deep prescutellar pit; anterior margin with large,wide, median lobe; posterior margin weakly biarcuate; lateral margins curved, deeply emarginate anterior to the sharp posterior angles, maximum pronotal width at mid-length; “agriloid carina” very distinct reaching posterior third of lateral margins; sculpture consisting of small, very dense, poorly defined polygonal cells anteriorly, and large polygonal cells with central grains laterally. Scutellum small, subcordiform, flat.
Elytra long, 3.4 times as long as wide, flattened, strongly narrowed anterior to mid-length, very slightly caudiform; humeral callosities large, basal, transverse depressions wide, deep, reaching scutellum; subhumeral carina well-defined, reaching almost mid-length of elytra; apex of elytra with very fine serrations; disc of elytra microsculptured without distinct sculpture but with rather intense, silky lustre.
Ventral surface lustrous with very fine, almost indistinct eye-shaped sculpture on abdominal ventrites and wide, well-defined eye-shaped sculpture with tiny central grains on pro- and metasternum; prosternum widely, transversally grooved behind anterior margin which is perpendicularly elevated and somewhat rolled posteriorly (Fig. 28 in Bílý & Brûlé, 2013); prosternal process weakly convex; anal tergite spatulate, flat with lateral margins elevated, apically almost truncate without distinct apical serrations (Fig. 5); anal sternite apically regularly rounded without serrations. Legs relatively short, protibiae weakly curved, meso- and metatibiae straight, not modified; tarsal claws hook-shaped, weakly enlarged at base.
Aedeagus (Fig. 11) well-sclerotised, spindle-shaped, flattened, apex of parameres very slender, median lobe wide, simply pointed apically.
Measurement. Length: 6.1–6.6 mm (holotype 6.1 mm); width: 1.2–1.3 mm (holotype 1.2 mm).
Sexual dimorphism. The female differs from the male only by the slightly stouter body and somewhat wider frons; no sexual dichromatism.
Bionomy. Unknown.
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin adjective “ angustus ” (narrow) and the Greek substantive “ pterón ” (wing) to stress the unusual shape of elytra.
Differential diagnosis. Agrilaxia (Agrilaxia) angustiptera sp. nov. is a very distinct species characterized mainly by the very narrowed (strongly waisted) elytra at their mid-length, dark colouration with the silky lustre, smooth posterior margins of the last sternite and tergite and by the form of the anterior prosternal margin. The only species it can be compared with is A. (A.) chrysifrons (Kerremans, 1896) described from a female from Brasil (without more precise data) which was recently found also in French Guiana (Bílý & Brûlé, 2013). A. (A.) angustiptera sp. nov. differs from it by the green frons and black scutellum (black frons with green lustre and green scutellum in A. (A.) chrysifrons), narrower vertex and much larger eyes, longer and less caudiform elytra (distinctly caudiform and only 3 times as long as wide in A. (A.) chrysifrons), smooth posterior margins of the last tergite and ventrite (distinctly serrate in A. (A.) chrysifrons) and primarily by the typically prognathous mouth parts (only weakly prognathous head in A. (A.) chrysifrons). Aedeagus of A. (A.) angustiptera sp. nov. (Fig. 11) is more slender and spindle-shaped than that of A. (A.) chrysifrons (Fig. 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 pages 66-68, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.229828