Melobasis quadrinotata, Carter

Levey, Brian, 2018, A revision of the Australian species of the genus Melobasis Laporte & Gory 1837 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Part 2 (Revision of the nervosa species group), Zootaxa 4528 (1), pp. 1-79 : 37-39

M. quadrinotata Carter

(Figs 16, 61–62, 112–113, 154, 184, 209)

Melobasis quadrinotata Carter 1923:84 ; 1929:285; Obenberger 1930:434; Bellamy 2002:162; 2008:1331.

Type locality: Queensland, Townsville .

Type specimen examined. Holotype ♀ ( MVMA) Townsville, Queensland / Melobasis quadrinotata Carter Id. by H.J. Carter / Type H.J.C. ♀ / T4389 Type ♀ / Melobasis quadrinotata Carter comp. with descr. by B. Levey 1972 HOLOTYPE. Holotype imaged at http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/search.php

Other specimens examined. Queensland: Edungalba; Milmerran. Specimens examined from ANIC, BLC, CLBC, MVMA, IRSNB, QMA, WAMA.

Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 10.0– 15.2 mm; head, pronotum and elytra mostly blackish purple, pronotum sometimes with greenish copper reflections at centre; elytra with the following silvery green or blue markings: a broad humeral vitta in the basal fifth, between the 1 st and 2 nd costae; a broad median macula lateral to the second costa; a sutural vitta extending from the scutellum almost to the elytral apex; underside laterally, blackish lilac to deep bluish green, moderately densely clothed with moderately long silvery pubescence, central parts coppery or bright green, glabrous.

Head (Fig. 154): very densely punctate, with small, shallow, round punctures, very densely clothed with long silvery pubescence, which partly conceals the punctation; clypeal excision shallow, U-shaped, with a broad impunctate shiny border, clypeal peaks right angled, without a defined clypeal angle; vertex flat, slightly less than half width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes very strongly convex.

Antenna: slightly sexually dimorphic; ♂ segments 4–6 weakly triangularly serrate, 7–10 almost quadrate, ♀ segments 4–10 weakly triangularly serrate.

Pronotum: 1.46–1.61 × as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin strongly bisinuate, with a poorly developed broad median lobe, which is often subtruncate, with a complete narrow beaded margin; posterior margin weakly bisinuate; widest at, or just in front of middle; moderately strongly widening from basal angles to widest point, before moderately strongly curvilinearly narrowing to the apical angles; as wide as, or very slightly narrower at base than elytra at base; lateral carina almost straight to slightly curved, about two-thirds complete; punctation in central fifth moderately dense, consisting of small, shallow, round to slightly transversely ovate, punctures; punctation laterally becoming dense to very dense, consisting of larger, stronger, transversely ovate and round punctures; with a complete or incomplete, impunctate, median line; moderately densely clothed, with moderately long, silvery pubescence in lateral half.

Scutellum: quadrate to shield shaped, about one-twentieth width of elytra at base.

Elytra: 2.30–2.48× as long as wide at base; basal margin very weakly bisinuate to biangulate; slightly widening from the base over the humeral callosities, thence almost parallel sided to mid-length, before narrowing to the rounded apices; lateral margins in apical half and apices with moderately coarse, acute, serrations; sutural margin strongly raised in apical three-quarters; each elytron with two or three costae: 1 st costa well defined, extending almost from the basal margin to the apical eighth; 2 nd slightly less well defined extending from the basal quarter to the apical fifth; 3 rd (often poorly defined or absent) extending from below humeral callosity to apical fifth; subsutural depression densely punctate, with tiny round punctures; area between first and second costae densely punctate, with slightly larger round punctures, except in the basal fifth, where the punctures are almost contiguous, larger, transverse ellipsoidal, forming transverse series; punctation on rest of elytra almost contiguous, transverse ellipsoidal, mostly forming transverse series; weakly microreticulate.

Hypomeron: contiguously punctate, with medium sized, shallow, round punctures, partly obscured by long silvery pubescence.

Prosternum: with a narrow bead at the anterior margin; the anterior margin at the same level as the area behind; prosternal process slightly, regularly widening, from base to apex, sparsely punctate with pin-prick punctures, glabrous.

Mesanepisternum: moderately densely punctate, with medium sized, shallow, round setae bearing punctures, mostly confined to the anterior half; surface between punctures shiny.

Central part of metaventrite, inner part of metacoxa, central part of abdominal ventrites glabrous, more sparsely and weakly punctate than lateral parts of these structures, which are densely to contiguously punctate, and densely clothed with long silvery pubescence, which partly obscures the punctation.

Apical ventrite (Figs 112–113): lunate punctures coalescing to form grooves parallel to the lateral margin; excision in ♂ broad, W shaped, with a slightly bisinuate flange, with well developed parallel lateral spines (Fig. 112); ♀ moderately broad U-shaped, the flange slightly developed, the lateral spines well developed, parallel to slightly divergent (Fig. 113).

Fore tibia: ♂ slightly curved, with a series of very small inconspicuous teeth on the ventral face, and a poorly developed setal brush on the anterior face at the apex; ♀ teeth absent and setal brush even less developed.

Mid tibia: ♂ strongly curved, with a large setae filled depression on the ventral face extending for most of the apical two-thirds of the tibia (Fig. 209); ♀ almost straight, without a depression.

Aedeagus (Figs 61–62): parameres moderately strongly narrowing from mid-length to basal piece, strongly narrowing from mid-length to the apical setae bearing parts, which are slightly angulate, with strong, slightly curved, spine-like setae in addition to the usual long fine setae, posterior to the angulation; median lobe with a subacute tip.

Comments. This very distinctive species is unlikely to be confused with any other known species.

Bionomics. Adults collected December–January on Brigalow, Acacia harpophylla F.Muell. ex Benth.

(Fabaceae). Larval hosts unknown.