Austrochalcophora, Bellamy, 2006

Bellamy, C. L., 2006, Studies on the Australian Chalcophorini: a new genus for Chalcophora subfasciata Carter, 1916 and a review of the Pseudotaenia Kerremans, 1903 generic-group (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Zootaxa 1206 (1), pp. 23-46 : 26

Austrochalcophora , gen. nov.

Type species: Chalcophora subfasciata Carter, 1916 (present designation).

Diagnostic description. Moderately large, elongate­ovoid, flattened above, moderately convex below; dorsal integument black with defined, yet irregular iridescent dull green depressions laterally on pronotum and elytra with short recumbent setae that contain yellow pulverulent exudate; ventral surface iridescent dull green; head longitudinally depressed on frontovertex; inner margin of large eyes converging dorsally; antennal insertions widely separated; medioventral margin of epistome emarginate; antennomeres elongate, feebly serrate from 3; pronotum nearly 1.5x as wide as long, widest at very feeble bisinuate posterior margin; anterior margin broadly concave, with medial portion narrowly bilobed; lateral margins broadly, shallowly convex, with marginal carina extending only to posterior 1/3; scutellum small, subquadrate; elytra as wide as pronotum at anterior margin, but quickly expanding to obtuse angle opposite humerus then subparallel, feebly expanding to beyond midpoint then gradually narrowing to separately dentate apices, margin from posterior midpoint strongly, yet widely separated, acutely dentate; prosternum with anterior margin entire, prosternal process broadly trilobed distally, disc longitudinally sulcate; femora strongly fusiform; tibiae with two distal spines; tarsi with broad ventral pulvilli on tarsomeres 1–4, 5 with claws narrow, widely separated.

Remarks. Théry (1929) discussed C. subfasciata in terms of placement within Chalcophora or Chrysodema and stated “ Chrysodema are merely southern forms of the genus Chalcophora , without any very decisive character to separate them from Holarctic forms, being the geographic replacement for Chalcophora in the Southern Hemisphere. This is moreover the opinion of Lacordaire (1857) who refused to separate the two genera, not being able to find appreciable limits between them. We shall preserve them, however, but on the condition of not introducing into the genus Chalcophora species unprovided with the characteristic facies of the holartic species.” Chalcophora , as presently defined, contains 15 species from the Nearctic, Neotropical, Oriental and Palaearctic regions and these are generally associated with coniferous trees, e.g. Pinus and Picea . Morphologically these beetles do not differ in major ways, seeming to retain many of the shared character states of a conservative chalcophorine lineage. However, the morphological differences when taken together with the biological and biogeographic divergence are sufficient to justify this new genus which conforms to the overwhelming data that support the hypothesis of a distinct Australian buprestid lineage (see discussion above). Australochalcophora and Chalcophora can be separated by the character state differences listed below in Table 1.