Spilopyra semiramis Reid & Beatson 2010, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Reid, C. A. M.
name: Beatson, M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Chrysomelidae
Spilopyra
Spilopyra semiramis

description: Spilopyra semiramis sp. nov.   
(Figs 3, 9, 22, 28, 29, 45, 51, 67, 81, 88, 101, 112, 118)  
 Material examined. Holotype: ♂ / Kmu [Karimui, Papua New Guinea, 6:30S 144:50E, 982m], vii.1975, H. Ohlmus (ANIC); Paratypes (3): ♂, 2♀, same data as holotype (AMS, ANIC).   
 Description. Length: 12−13mm. Body dark reddish-brown with metallic reflections, appendages red except tarsomeres 1-3, 5, and extreme apices tibiae metallic purplish-blue, femora greenish, apex labrum yellowish-red, antennomeres 5−11 black, 4 darker than 1−3, which are medially darkened. Metallic reflections on body and elytra distributed as follows: extruded part of head capsule: golden-green, with purple transverse-oval patch on middle of vertex, close to eyes laterally and not extending to clypeus anteriorly; thorax: pronotum: all dorsal margins golden-green, broad at base, not extended towards disc at middle of base and apex, remainder purple; venter green; scutellum golden-green, mesoventrite green; elytra purple, with transverse green band at middle of basal half from epipleuron almost to suture, transverse green patch at middle of apical half connected to epipleuron, broadly green sutural stripe from anterior of this patch to elytral apex, green outer elytral edge from patch to apex; metaventrite green, with purple lateral and posterior margins; metepisternum purple; abdominal ventrites feebly metallic purple.   
Head: punctures generally small (diameter similar to eye facets), close (separated by 1−4 diameters) and slightly strigose, but on clypeus and between and behind eyes larger (diameter much greater than eye facet) and denser; almost glabrous, but with 3−4 trichobothria in groove at inner margin of eye, minute recumbent setae on clypeus; medially depressed between eyes, without groove on midline of vertex; apical margin clypeus deeply concave; frontoclypeal suture effaced at middle, sides deeply grooved; eyes separated by c. 4.5 times (male) or c. 4.8 times (female) eye widths; gena c. 0.3 times eye length; antennae c. 4.7 times socket diameters apart; antennae 0.5−0.6 times body length; antennomere 2 shortest (c. 0.65 times first), <1=6=8, <3=9=10, <4=7=11; antennomeres 7−11 densely setose and broader than sparsely setose thinner 1−6; apical maxillary palpomere elongate, fusiform in both sexes, length about equal to preapical.  
 Thorax: pronotal punctures mostly large (twice diameter of middle of head) and close (generally separated by 1−3 diameters), becoming larger (c. 2 times discal puncture width) at base & sides; apparently glabrous, except trichobothrium in each angle; pronotal width 1.5 times length, lateral margins slightly sinuate between prominent, distinctly acute angles; pronotal disc almost evenly convex, but with faint lateral median depressions; anterior margination incomplete, absent from middle third to half; hypomeron mostly smooth, laterally wrinkled in basal half, not obviously punctured or setose; prosternal process slightly elevated between coxae, almost impunctate and glabrous, approximately quadrate, but with elongate apico-lateral lobes and two short and rounded apical median lobes (apex bilobed); scutellum semi-ovate, with small basal punctures or finely strigose; elytra apparently glabrous; elytron with deep transverse depression from epipleuron almost to suture, about 1/3 rd from base, prominently angular humerus projecting laterally from between base of 5 th stria and epipleuron, apical angle c. 75°; strial punctures large and deep at middle (similar to pronotal base), larger in and just beyond transverse depression, shallower at base, evanescent at apex; elytra semi-striate, with 5−6 distinct striae and sutural stria, but outer striae partly confused by large interstrial punctures; upper margin epipleuron complete to base of elytron at humerus, but not continued to basal elytral edge; mesoventrite median process transverse, strongly arched to strongly concave apical margin, without lateral depressions; metaventrite shining, minutely and sparsely punctured and pubescent; metaventrite anterior lobe not or shallowly depressed, without margination, remainder of anterior border simply margined, without crenulation or pitting; metepisternum shining and impunctate or almost so; hind femur smooth, finely and sparsely punctured; tibiae not swollen in apical half, protibia with preapical ventral brush of dense setae (long & short), metatibia with a few preapical ventral long setae; tibiae smooth, finely and sparsely punctured, without keels; second metatarsomere roughly equilateral triangular.   
Abdomen: ventrites I−V with 1−2 pairs of long setae near midline, and minute sparse recumbent setae, slightly denser on ventrites IV−V; ventrite I with basal lateral keel, 4/5 length ventrite at middle, remaining ventrites without keels; apex ventrite V truncate in male, rounded in female; spiculum relictum broadly concave, with broad basal apodeme; penis apex almost right-angled in dorsal view, acute and slightly reflexed in lateral view; ostium of penis with strongly exerted paired narrow valves; tegmen Y-shaped, broad stem contracted to truncate base, internal keel basal only, prominent and evenly convex; endophallic sclerite trilobed; apex female sternite VIII deeply concave, base with small apodeme; spermatheca falcate but apex swollen and globular, duct irregularly but strongly coiled.  
 Notes. Etymology: named for legendary queen and beauty Semiramis (Lane Fox 2008), a noun in apposition.   
 Spilopyra semiramis is known from a single collection event. The placename Kmu does not exist, but was the collector’s shorthand for Karimui in the central highlands of New Guinea.
description: Published as part of Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2010, Revision of the Australo-Papuan genus Spilopyra Baly (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Spilopyrinae), pp. 1-32 in Zootaxa 2692 (1) on pages 23-24, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2486.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5304597