Melobasis burnsi, Levey, 2012

Levey, Brian, 2012, 3464, Zootaxa 3464, pp. 1-107 : 31-32

M. burnsi sp. n.

(Figs. 100, 101, 164, 200, 201)

Type locality: Western Australia, 58 km S. of Menzies .

Type specimens examined. Holotype ♂ ( WAMA) 58 K. S. Menzies W.A. Acacia // 29-1-92/ Golding Powell. 10 Paratypes as follows. Western Australia: 4 ♂, 3 ♀ ( NMWC, TMSHC) 26 Km S. of Menzies , 9–11 February 2006, M. Hanlon & M. Powell, on Acacia leaves. 1 ♀ ( TMSHC) 45 Km N. of Kalgoorlie, 25 January 2003, T.M.S. Hanlon, on Acacia sp. leaves. 1 ♀ ( TMSHC) Canegrass, 20 Jan. 1937, H.W. Brown, on Acacia . 1♀ ( MPC) 5 km E. of Kalgoorlie W.A., 9 February 2006, M. Hanlon & M. Powell, on Senna leaves. Victoria: 1 ♀ ( NMWC), 210/ G.G. Burns, 36 kms. N.N.W. of Manangatang, 6-1-1981. VIC. New South Wales: 1♀ (?) ( ASC), 6 km W of Euabalong West, NSW, -33 03 21.00, 146 19 46.00, 17.i.1987, on Acacia sp. , A. Sundholm, J. Bugeja.

Diagnosis. General diagnosis: length 9.8–11.9 mm; head and pronotum brownish-, greenish- or blackishbronze; elytra deep lilac, deep reddish-purple, pinkish- or brownish-copper, with the following coppery, goldengreen or green markings: a sutural vitta in the basal quarter, sometimes extending along the basal margin, and the basal half of the epipleura; a humeral vitta of the same length or slightly shorter, which may extend narrowly along the basal margin and the lateral margin opposite the humeral callosity; a sinuate median fascia; a roughly obovate pre-apical macula, which sometimes extends basally to nearly fuse with the median fascia; underside brownish- or greenish-bronze; lateral parts of underside densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence.

Head: upper third of vertex moderately densely punctured with small round punctures; remainder of head very densely punctured with ovate punctures which largely coalesce to form short linear series orientated dorsoventrally on the lower half of the vertex and the frontoclypeus; moderately densely clothed with moderately long silvery pubescence; unpunctured areas shiny to weakly microretriculate, however, sometimes strongly microreticulate on the frontoclypeus; clypeal excision fairly deep, U-shaped, with an unpunctured strongly microreticulate border; clypeal peaks acutely angled; vertex flat, about half to slightly more than half width of head across eyes when viewed from above; eyes moderately convex.

Antenna: serrate from segment 4–10, the segments becoming progressively smaller and slightly less elongate, the expanded part of each segment more or less quadrate in ♂, in ♀ segment 4, 5 and sometimes 6 more or less triangular, the rest slightly more quadrate.

Pronotum: 1.62–1.74 times as wide at base as long in midline; anterior margin weakly bisinuate, with a slightly developed broad often strongly truncated median lobe (sometimes the median lobe is not developed, and the anterior margin between the eyes is straight); posterior margin bisinuate; widest at posterior angles or at least as wide at posterior angles as at mid-length; lateral margins almost parallel or slightly convergent to mid-length, (sometimes slightly sinuate in front of the posterior angles), thence weakly to moderately strongly curvilinearly converging to the anterior angles; as wide as, to markedly narrower at base than elytra at base; lateral carina almost straight or slightly sinuate, about half to four-fifths complete; punctation moderately dense in central fifth, consisting of small round punctures, which become progressively larger and denser towards the lateral margin; with a complete or incomplete unpunctured midline; shiny or weakly microreticulate; moderately densely clothed with fairly long silvery pubescence in lateral half.

Scutellum: shield-shaped or slightly transverse quadrate, about one-eleventh to one-twelfth width of elytra at base.

Elytra: 1.96–2.19 times as long as wide at the base; basal margin moderately strongly bisinuate to biarcuate; parallel sided or very slightly widening from base over the humeral callosities, thence almost parallel sided to the mid-length, before narrowing to the broadly rounded apices; lateral margins from just beyond mid-length and apices with coarse acute serrations, those at the apices being slightly smaller; sutural margin slightly raised in apical half; rather uniformly punctured but with traces of one or two costate intervals in the inner half; internal of the first costate interval, moderately densely punctured with very small round punctures; external to the first costate interval the punctures become larger and dense, to very dense near the lateral margin, where they become ovate and form short transverse series; moderately strongly microreticulate.

Proepisternum: very densely punctured with moderately large, shallow, lunate punctures, partly obscured by dense long silvery pubescence.

Prosternum: without a well defined bead at the anterior margin, the anterior margin at almost the same level as the area behind; prosternal process moderately strongly widening distally, sparsely punctured with small punctures, with a few slightly larger punctures near the lateral margin; glabrous.

Mesoepisternum: densely punctured, with moderately large, shallow, semi-lunate punctures; mostly obscured by long silvery pubescence.

Apical sternite: with the lunate punctures coalescent, their rims forming ridges more or less parallel to the lateral margin over most of the surface, but turned in towards the midline distally; in ♂ excision deep, slightly wider than deep; distal margin of the flange straight, the spines strongly developed, slightly shorter or as long as the width of the flange ( Fig. 200); in ♀ excision is slightly less wide and the spines slightly shorter ( Fig. 201).

Tarsal claws: slightly widened at base, but without a basal tooth.

Aedeagus ( Fig. 164).

Ovipositor: short, about as wide as long.

Comments. This species is very similar to M. brevis sp. n. The lack of distinct elytral markings and the slight difference in the form of the aedeagus in M. brevis being the only significant differences I have found. It is possible they are only variations of one very variable species.

Etymology. This species is named after the late Gordon Burns.

Bionomics. Adults collected in January and February. Adults found on Acacia and Senna leaves. Larval hosts unknown.