Melobasis gloriosa
Creators: name: Levey, Brian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Melobasis
Melobasis gloriosa

description: Key to the gloriosa species-group   
 1 Base of elytra markedly biarcuate; each elytron with traces of four costae; upperside and underside golden-green, the elytra with a specifically diagnostic blackish-lilac pattern (Fig. 129) M. eximia sp. n.   
- Without the above combination of characters................................................................ 2  
 2 Mesoepisternum with numerous large round setae-bearing punctures (Fig. 44); elytra with two or three costae; elytra with well defined vittae and fasciae (Fig. 140)........................................................... M. similis sp. n.   
- Mesoepisternum without or with very few large round setae-bearing punctures, but with few to many small non setae-bearing punctures; elytra usually with at most only one costa; elytra with or without well defined vittae and fasciae.............. 3  
 3 Large, robust, entirely brown-bronze species (Fig. 141); length 14–21mm............................ M. robusta Carter   
- Smaller, less robust species, very variable in colour and markings; length 8–14mm.................................. 4  
 4 Lateral half of pronotum clothed with fairly long conspicuous pubescence; mesoepisternum shiny, mirror like, unpunctured except at the margins; underside densely clothed with long conspicuous pubescence; uniformly greyish bronze (Fig. 131)........................................................................................ M. specularis sp. n.   
- Lateral half of pronotum glabrous or with pubescence only close to the lateral carina, without the other characteristics combined............................................................................................... 5  
 5 Underside densely clothed with long pubescence, particularly conspicuous on the prosternal process; narrow species (Fig. 130); aedeagus very elongate (Fig. 192)....................................................... M. angusta sp. n.   
- Underside usually less densely clothed with shorter pubescence; less narrow species (Figs. 132–139); aedeagus less elongate (Figs. 193, 194)....................................................................................... 6  
 6 Subspecies from New South Wales; consistently sexually dichromatic, females entirely brown- or grey-bronze (Fig.138); males with the head and underside entirely golden-green, pronotum golden-green with a pair of coppery or purple-brown admedian vittae in the basal two-thirds, elytra coppery or purple-brown with the suture in the basal fifth and a broad oblique vitta extending from the base almost to the apex golden-green, (sometimes the vitta is divided just behind the middle) (Fig. 139); elytra usually with a well defined costa lateral to the subsutural depression, and sometimes traces of a second; punctation of elytra lateral to the costa with scarcely any indications of seriation.................... M. gloriosa cruentata Thomson   
 - Subspecies from W. Australia; colour and markings very variable, not consistently sexually dichromatic (Figs. 132–137); elytra sometimes with, however, often without a well defined costa lateral to the subsutural depression; punctation in central third of elytra usually partly seriate.......................................... M. gloriosa gloriosa (Laporte & Gory)
description: Published as part of Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, pp. 1-107 in Zootaxa 3464 on page 68