Spilopyra safrina 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 safrina

description: Spilopyra safrina sp. nov.   
(Figs 1, 7, 20, 26, 43, 49, 65, 77, 85, 86, 98, 99, 110, 118)  
 Material examined. Holotype: 1♀ / Windsor Tableland via Mt Carbine, malaise trap, 26.xii.1983 − 24.i.1984, Storey & Halfpapp / (QDPIM); Paratype (1): 1♀ / Cairns / Spilopyra stirlingi Lea Queensland / (MMS).   
 Description [female only]. Length: 10.5−11mm; colour: body dark reddish-brown with metallic reflections, appendages red except tarsomeres 1−3, 5, and extreme apices tibiae metallic green, labrum yellowish-red; metallic reflections on body and elytra distributed as follows: extruded part of head capsule: golden-green, with transverse purple diamond on middle of vertex, almost reaching eyes laterally and not extending to clypeus anteriorly; pronotum: all dorsal margins narrowly golden-green, extended towards disc at middle of base and apex, remainder purple; venter golden-green; scutellum golden-green, mesoventrite golden-green; elytra purple, with short green elongate mark at base of 3 rd, 4 th and part of 5 th intervals, green spot on outer edge of humerus (not visible dorsally), complete transverse green band at middle of basal half, narrowly green suture from this band to elytral apex, transverse green patch at middle of apical half not connected with either suture or epipleuron, green outer edge from near this patch to apex; metaventrite green medially and anteriorly, purple laterally including lateral margins; metepisternum green; abdominal ventrites purple with or without green margins.   
Head: punctures generally fine (about equal to eye facets) and sparse (separated by>3 diameters), larger and denser on clypeus, near eyes and at posterior; almost glabrous, but with 3 trichobothria at inner margin of eye, short slightly elevated setae posterior and anterior to eye and short recumbent setae on clypeus; medially broadly depressed between eyes, without groove on midline of vertex; apical margin clypeus shallowly concave; frontoclypeal suture well-defined, with convex base; eyes separated by c. 4 times eye widths; gena c. 0.28 times eye length; antennae c. 3.5 times socket diameters apart; antennae c. 0.55 times body length; antennomeres: 2 shortest (c. 0.6 times first), <6, <1=8, <3=4=5, <7=9=10, 11; antennomeres 7−11 densely setose and broader than sparsely setose thinner 1−6; apical maxillary palpomere elongate, fusiform, length c. 1.3 times preapical.  
 Thorax: pronotal punctures fine (slightly larger than on middle of head) and sparse (separated by>3 diameters), becoming larger (c. 2 times discal puncture width) and closer (separated by 2−3 diameters) at base; pronotum glabrous, except trichobothrium in each angle and minutely setose lateral margins; pronotal width 1.75 times length, lateral margins evenly convex between prominent, slightly acute angles; pronotal disc almost evenly convex, but with pair of faint depressions either side of midline in basal third; anterior margination incomplete, absent from middle third; hypomeron irregularly wrinkled, not obviously punctured or setose; prosternal process elevated between coxae, punctured and pubescent, approximately quadrate, but with elongate apico-lateral lobes and triangular apical median lobe with rounded apex; scutellum roundedtriangular, with or without 2−3 large punctures; elytra almost glabrous, minute setae present laterally and apically; elytron with deep transverse depression from suture to epipleuron, about 1/3 rd from base, prominent humerus between base of 5 th stria and small depression at epipleuron; strial punctures large and deep at base (similar to pronotal base), evanescent from middle to apex; elytra striate, with 9 distinct striae and sutural stria; large punctures present in transverse depression (especially at sides) and in basal half between 1 st and 2 nd striae and 7 th and 8 th striae, smaller punctures present between 9 th stria and epipleuron; upper margin epipleuron complete to base of elytron, continuing along basal edge; mesoventrite median process transverse, strongly arched to slightly concave apical margin, with shallow median depression; metaventrite shining, minutely and sparsely punctured and pubescent; metaventrite anterior lobe deeply depressed, without margination, remainder of anterior border simply margined, without crenulation or pitting; metepisternum shining and impunctate or almost so; hind femur smooth and sparsely punctured; all tibiae slightly swollen in apical half, metatibia with preapical long setae on inner face; tibiae smooth, sparsely and finely punctured, without keels; second metatarsomere transverse.   
Abdomen: ventrites I−V with 3−6 pairs of long setae near midline, and minute sparse recumbent setae, denser on ventrites IV−V; ventrite I with basal lateral keel, 1/3−1/2 length ventrite at middle, remaining ventrites without keels; apex ventrite V rounded; apex sternite VIII rounded or narrowly truncate, base with small quadrate apodeme; spermatheca U-shaped with relatively pointed apex, slightly bent towards duct, which is loosely coiled.  
 Note. Etymology: a noun in apposition, named for Safrina Thristiawati, partner of CAMR.   
 Spilopyra safrina is known from 2 specimens, one of which has a printed locality label ‘Cairns’ and the same information written separately in Lea’s handwriting (CAMR, pers. obs.). This appears to be a specimen collected by Lea, who used the appelations ‘Cairns’ and ‘Cairns dist.’ for material collected within at least 100km of Cairns. The other specimen was collected from Windsor Tableland, 100km from Cairns, a large block of forest west of the Mount Carbine-Mount Lewis plateau, and generally sharing its flora and fauna with that region (Yeates, Bouchard & Monteith 2002). It is therefore possible that S. safrina is endemic to this biogeographic area.
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 20-21, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2486.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5304597