Brachys barri Hespenheide

Hespenheide, Henry A., 2015, Striking New Species ofBrachysDejean, 1833 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico, The Coleopterists Bulletin 69 (2), pp. 221-224 : 223

Brachys barri Hespenheide , new species ( Fig. 2)

Description. Holotype female: Rounded heptagonal, more abruptly narrow in front than behind; black head, pronotum, and venter, strongly shiny, with pale golden reflections, anterior 2/3 of elytra bright blue, more greenish blue along suture, posterior 1/3 irregularly reddish coppery, extending anteriorad at lateral margin and middle of each elytron, shorter along suture ( Fig. 2); head nearly glabrous with sparse, inconspicuous setae between upper margins of eyes and on vertex, and just above epistoma and antennal insertions; pronotum glabrous on disc, sparsely covered with silvery setae along base lateral to midline and more broadly along lateral margins; elytra glabrous in blue area, coppery area with dense coppery setae with narrow band of silver setae along anterior margin; ventral surface with uniform, sparse, short, inconspicuous setae, line of sparse silvery setae along posterior margin of terminal ventrite; 3.55 mm long, 1.75 mm wide. Head: Width 1.00 mm, weakly depressed along midline, more broadly so between eyes; epistomal width 1/5 of distance between inner margins of eyes. Pronotum: Strongly convex at anterior margin in cross-section, nearly flat in lateral view, transversely depressed along base lateral to midline, widest at base, sides very weakly rounded to apical angles; prehumeral carinae broadly, weakly rounded ridge for about 1/2 length of pronotum at middle; surface shagreened on midline at base and on disc, otherwise ocellate punctate along margins. Scutellum triangular, weakly rounded on anterior margin, about 2X wider than long. Elytra: Slightly narrower than pronotum at base, equally wide at base and middle, weakly emarginate between; humeri moderately prominent, each elytron with strong, linear depression along base interior to humerus, and weakly carinate along lateral margin only on anterior 4/5 of blue area; surface obsoletely punctate on disk in blue area, becoming transversely rugulose at lateral margins, surface densely micropunctate and granular in the apical coppery area. Venter: Faintly, inconspicuously shagreened and ocellate punctate, punctures open behind. Apex of terminal abdominal ventrite broadly rounded with 12 deflexed, blunt teeth, longest at middle becoming shorter at lateral edges.

H o l o t y p e. Mexico: Mexico, 7.4 km NW Temescaltepec , 2148 m, 20.08.1991, W.F. Barr, oak-pine for[est] ( CASC, on indefinite loan from WFBM) .

Etymology. Named in honor of the noted coleopterist and collector of the unique holotype, the late William F. Barr (Westcott and Merickel 2012).

Discussion. This is arguably one of the most beautiful species of Brachys in Mexico. The short lateral carina on the elytra of this and the following species is unusual among previously described species in the genus, with only Brachys intervallorum Hespenheide , Brachys simplex Waterhouse , and the following species having partial carinae, and Brachys fulgidus Fisher and Brachys exquisitus Hespenheide lacking carinae altogether.