Macrolema dickdaviesi, Reid & Beatson, 2010

Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2010, 2486, Zootaxa 2486, pp. 1-60 : 16-17

Macrolema dickdaviesi sp. nov.

( Figs 6, 22, 48, 70, 84, 102, 117, 131)

Material examined

Types: Holotype: male: / Mt Fisher, Millaa Millaa , N Qld, 10.xi.1979, A & M Walford-Huggins / [ ANIC]; Paratypes (3): male, same data as holotype [ ANIC]; female: / Mt Misery , N Qld, West [sic] of Carbine, 21.xii.1974, A & M Walford-Huggins / [ ANIC]; female: / S Johnstone R ., Queensland H. W. Brown / [ AMS] .

Description

Length: males 8mm, females 9–9.5mm; body shallowly convex in profile, length c.3.2x height. Body and appendages dark brown to black with metallic reflections, green on body, purplish-blue on antennae, tibiae and tarsi, weaker ventrally, except (i) elytron yellow, with two approximately median circular metallic black spots; (ii) apex labrum, maxilla and labium, parts of coxae and trochanters, reddish-brown, apical palpomeres darker.

Head ( Figs 6, 22): head puncturation variable but frontoclypeus more finely and closely punctured than sparsely and more strongly punctured remainder of head; minutely setose on anterior of frontoclypeus and above antennae (one specimen only); depressed between eyes, with or without groove on midline of vertex; eyes separated by c. 3x eye widths (both sexes); gena 0.15x eye length (both sexes); antennae c. 6x socket diameters apart; antennae c. 0.85x body length (male), or c. 0.8x body length (female); all antennomeres elongate: 2 shortest (c.0.5x first), <1=3, <4, <8=9=10, <5, <6=11, <7 (male), or <1=3=4, <8=9=10, <5=6=11, <7 (female); labrum not densely setose, with 2–3 pairs of prominent setae; apical maxillary palpomere elongate, almost cylindrical in both sexes, apex narrower in female, preapical palpomere shorter than apical.

Thorax ( Figs 6, 48): pronotum closely and strongly punctured at sides, base and midline, more diffusely on anterior half of disc, shining, with scattered distinct micropunctures between macropunctures; minutely setose at sides (one specimen); pronotal width 1.4x length, lateral margins strongly convex but not lobed at middle; pronotal disc with pair of deep lateral depressions, with or without shallow basal depression; anterior margination incomplete, absent from middle half; hypomeron at least partly punctate; prosternal process narrow and strongly arched from base to truncate apex; scutellum punctate at base, elongate-triangular with blunt apex; elytron with 2 circular shallow or deep depressions on basal half of disc, one on striae 3–5, and one on striae 6–8; elytral punctures large and deep in basal half, evanescent towards apex; elytra striate, with striae 1–7 and 9 regular and 8 partially obliterated by deep elytral depression, without or with minute interstrial punctures; irregular depressions absent or small along basal half of elytron adjacent to epipleuron; upper margin epipleuron reaching base of elytron, but not continued on basal edge; mesoventrite median process strongly arched to truncate apex; metaventrite shining and sparsely and minutely punctured, anterior with complete margination and without median depression, edge pitted lateral to middle; metepisternum not microreticulate, strongly punctured; 1 short spur on protibia, 2 on remainder.

Abdomen ( Figs 70, 84, 102, 117): ventrites I and II entirely fused; male ventrites shining, not microreticulate, closely and strongly punctured on apical half of I–II, all of III, more sparsely on IV–V, but middle of at least ventrites I and V smooth and impunctate, setae on I–V short and recumbent, with almost glabrous midline, not in distinct transverse bands; female ventrites as male but more densely punctured, wrinkled at sides and midline with scattered punctures and short recumbent setae; ventrite I laterally keeled along basal 1/2–2/3, other ventrites without keels; apex ventrite V narrowly truncate in both sexes; sternite VIII of male I-shaped (linear); apex of penis gradually narrowed in dorsal view, apical angle c.80°, thickened but not curved in lateral view; female sternite VIII with short triangular basal apodeme; gonocoxite distinctly setose at apex; spermatheca falcate with blunt apex, duct tightly coiled.

Notes

This species is named for an Australian Museum Eureka Science prize winner (in 2005), Dick Davies, at that time chief executive of the Australian Mineral Industry Research Association.

Macrolema dickdaviesi is known from only 4 specimens taken at 3 localities in the Wet Tropics World heritage Area, north Queensland ( Fig. 131). This species was collected in November and December .