Anthaxia (Richteraxia) Bílý 2019, subgen. nov.
Creators: name: Bílý, Svatopluk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Anthaxia

description: Subgenus Richteraxia subgen. nov.
Type species: Buprestis angustipennis Klug, 1829; present designation.
DEFINITION OF THE SUBGENUS. Medium-sized to large (5.0–13.0 mm), slender, usually strongly acuminate species; dorsal surface bronze, dark bronze, red-bronze, golden green or bicolorous (Figs. 14–16).
Head rather small, frons usually weakly convex, rarely flat, vertex narrow (0.5–1.5 times as wide as width of eye); antennae of male often enlarged (Figs. 15–16).
Pronotum usually strongly convex, lateroposterior depressions very weak or absent, only rarely wide and shallow, anterior third of lateral margins strongly rounded; pronotum looks somewhat “inflated” at anterior half (Figs. 14–16, 48, 49); posterior angles rectangular or sharp-angled, more or less prolonged, sometimes inserted in small notch in the humeral callosity (Fig. 25); pronotal sculpture usually homogeneous consisting of fine, rounded (Fig. 48), polygonal or weakly widened cells rarely also with fine transverse rugae at middle or fine longitudinal rugae along lateral margins, exceptionally entire pronotal disc with very fine, simple puncturation (Fig. 49). Elytra, narrow, rather flattened, strongly narrowing from humeri to apex, lateral portions of all abdominal ventrites clearly visible from above (Figs. 14–16); elytral epipleura usually wide, not reaching elytral apex; elytral apices with fine or rather strong lateral serrations.
Male metatibiae straight or weakly curved, often flattened with fine, inner serrations; anal ventrite of female notched apically; aedeagus slender, spindle-shaped or narrowed at posterior half, parameres without lateral spines (Figs. 61–63), median lobe without lateral serrations.
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS. The subgenus Richteraxia subgen. nov. is similar and most probably also closely related to the subgenus Haplanthaxia from which it differs by the more acuminate body, posteriorly strongly narrowed elytra, sometimes conspicuously widened antennae of male, rather simple, spindle-shaped aedeagus (sometimes narrowed at posterior half) but first of all by the shape and sculpture of pronotum. The anterior half of pronotum is usually conspicuously convex with widely rounded anterior angles (Figs. 48, 49) and the posterior angles are sharply rectangular or sharp-angled, often prolonged posteriorly, forming something like a “lock", together with the small notch in the anterior margin of the humeral callosity (Fig. 25). The pronotal sculpture is usually more simple than that of the subgenus Haplanthaxia consisting of the simple, regular ocellation, sometimes with the fine, transverse rugae on the disc, exceptionally the pronotal disc is covered by the simple, fine puncturation (Fig. 49). Males of many afrotropical species of this subgenus possess flattened metatibiae, the character which does not occur in Haplanthaxia.
BIONOMY. Unknown, but many species from the Middle East and Eastern Africa are associated with the genus Acacia (Fabaceae).
DISTRIBUTION: India, the Middle East, Sahel, south Europe, Eastern and South Africa, a few species in SE Asia.
ETYMOLOGY. The subgenus Richteraxia subgen. nov. is named after the Russian entomologist A. A. Richter (1911–1950) who devoted his short life to the family Buprestidae and who first recognised this subgenus.
Many species which were included by Richter (1949) in the subgenus Cryptocratomerus are now attributed to the subgenus Richteraxia subgen. nov. Unfortunately Richter (1949) designated Anthaxia kiesenwetteri Marseul, 1865 (belonging to the subgen. Haplanthaxia) as the type species of Cryptocratomerus so that a new type species, and the new name Richteraxia subgen. nov. had to be made for the subgenus containing the majority of species included by Richter in his subgenus Cryptocratomerus.
SPECIES INCLUDED. Many species previously included in the subgenus Haplanthaxia or Cratomerus: Anthaxia (R.) abdita Bílý, 1982, A. (R.) amplithorax Kerremans, 1903, A. (R.) andreini Kerremans, 1907, A. (R.) angustipennis (Klug, 1829), A. (R.) caudipennis Bílý, 1983, A. (R.) colonialis Obenberger, 1917, A. (R.) congolana Kerremans, 1909, A. (R.) crassa Obenberger, 1922, A. (R.) cratomerina Obenberger, 1922, A. (R.) cuneiptera Bílý, 1999, A. (R.) delagoana Obenberger, 1917, A. (R.) dilatipes Obenberger, 1928, A. (R.) fossicollis Kerremans, 1899, A. (R.) holynskyi Bílý, 1990, A. (R.) hornburgi Bílý, 2007, A. (R.) hypsibata Obenberger, 1924, A. (R.) imperatrix Obenberger, 1928, A. (R.) iveta Svoboda, 2003, A. (R.) liuchangloi Obenberger, 1958, A. (R.) maracaensis Théry, 1930, A. (R.) marginifera Abeille, 1907, A. (R.) moira Obenberger, 1931, A. (R.) moises Obenberger, 1921, A. (R.) nyassica Obst, 1903, A. (R.) prepsli Bílý, 1995, A. (R.) protractula Obenberger, 1931, A. (R.) reticollis Quedenfeldt, 1886, A. (R.) robusticornis Bílý, 1990, A. (R.) roxana Bílý, 1983, A. (R.) rudebecki Descarpentries, 1970, A. (R.) semiramis Obenberger, 1913, A. (R.) sudana Obenberger, 1928, A. (R.) vientianei Baudon, 1960.
After taxonomic revisions of certain African species-groups, probably many species will be synonymised; on the contrary new species could be expected in the Middle East and East Africa.
description: Published as part of Bílý, Svatopluk, 2019, Subgeneric classification of the genus Anthaxia Eschscholtz, 1829 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Anthaxiini), pp. 261-278 in Zootaxa 4568 (2) on pages 274-275, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4568.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/2599418