Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) aethiopica Bílý 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Bílý, Svatopluk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Buprestidae
Anthaxia
Anthaxia aethiopica

description: Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) aethiopica sp. nov.
(Figs. 7, 16, 23)
Type locality: SW Ethiopia, 70 km S of Jima (National Park), 07 o 02’N 36 o 40’E, 1230 m.
Type specimen studied. Holotype (male, NMPC): “ Ethiophia [sic!]-SW 70 km S Jima (N. P.), 07 o 02’N 36 o 40’E, 1230 m, 7.–8.v.2015, J. Halada leg.”.
Diagnosis. Small (5.7 mm), wedge-shaped, lustrous, bronze, elytral base and scutellum with weak greenish lustre; frons and anterior pronotal angles with short, white pubescence, elytra with short rusty pubescence; ventral surface black-bronze with rather long, sparse, white, recumbent pubescence.
Description of the male holotype. Head rather small, partly retracted into prothorax, as wide as anterior pronotal margin; frons flat with small, shallow depression in middle; anterior margin of frontoclypeus very shallowly emarginate, almost straight; vertex about as wide as width of eye; eyes large, narrowly reniform, not projecting beyond outline of head; sculpture consisting of fine, dense, simple punctures; antennae relatively short, weakly overlapping midlength of lateral, pronotal margins when laid alongside; scape claviform, 4 times as long as wide, pedicel suboval, about 1.5 times as long as wide; third antennomere weakly triangular, about twice as long as wide, antennomeres 4–10 trapezoidal, weakly wider than long, terminal antennomere rhomboidal, twice as long as wide.
Pronotum moderately convex, 1.8 times as wide as long with wide, deep lateroposterior depressions connected to each other by shallow, transverse depression; anterior margin weakly bisinuose, posterior margin almost straight; lateral margins widely, regularly rounded, posterior angles obtuse-angled; maximum width at midlength; sculpture consisting of fine, simple, rounded punctures on disc and fine, dense, polygonal cells with tiny central grains in lateroposterior depressions. Scutellum wide, weakly depressed, about 1.5 times as wide as long.
Elytra strongly wedge-shaped, 1.9 times as long as wide, weakly uneven; posterior third of lateral margins, finely, sharply serrate, basal, transverse depressions wide, deep, reaching scutellum; humeral callosities small, not projecting beyond elytral outline, subhumeral lobe large, lateral emargination deep, very wide; sculpture almost homogeneous, consisting of fine, irregular punctures.
Ventral surface lustrous with fine ocellate punctation and long, recumbent, white pubescence; prosternal process wide, flat, simply punctured, as wide as long; anal ventrite widely rounded with sharp lateral serrations. Legs relatively long, pro- and mesotibiae weakly curved, mesotibiae with fine, inner serrations at distal half, metatibiae (Fig. 23) flattened, deeply emarginate at distal third with small group of fine teeth at anterior part of emargination; tarsi long, only slightly shorter than corresponding tibiae, tarsal claws extraordinary small, weakly hook-shaped, not enlarged at base.
Aedeagus (Fig. 16) widely spindle-shaped, parameres deeply constricted at distal third, with very small, almost indistinct, dorsolateral projection.
Measurements. Length: 5.7 mm; width: 2.1 mm.
Female unknown.
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the country of the origin: Ethiopia.
Differential diagnosis. Anthaxia (H.) aethiopica sp. nov. is rather similar to A. (H.) dispar from which it differs by the shorter frontal pubescence, simply punctured pronotal disc, much smaller tarsal claws, weakly wider pronotum and longer elytra (se the key) and somewhat by the different male metatibiae (Fig. 23) and aedeagus (Fig. 16). Another very similar species, A. (H.) occidentalis sp. nov., differs from A. (H.) aethiopica sp. nov. (except for the distribution) by the flat frons, longer frontal pubescence, weakly transverse sculpture of the pronotal disc, larger tarsal claws and by the shape of male metatibiae (Fig. 27) and aedeagus (Fig. 21).
description: Published as part of Bílý, Svatopluk, 2020, A revision of the Anthaxia (Haplanthaxia) dispar Kerremans species-group (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Anthaxiini), pp. 522-534 in Zootaxa 4851 (3) on pages 529-530, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4851.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/4408005