Four new species of the genus Agrilus Curtis, 1825 from Ecuador (Coleoptera, Buprestidae)
Author
Curletti, Gianfranco
text
Zootaxa
2015
3985
4
575
582
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3985.4.6
8c07f9a6-9350-4761-a6ab-a6abc7097860
1175-5326
245051
229B688E-ACBE-48AD-9967-B6BC29ED05B4
Agrilus (Agrilus) delsinnei
n. sp.
(
Fig. 1
a, 1b, 1c).
Material examined.
Holotype
♂:
Ecuador
,
23.X.2014
, Cajanuma,
3000 m
, T. Delsinne leg. on
Macrocarpaea arborescens
Gilg
(
MCCI
).
Paratypes
: 5 ♀ and
3 ♂
idem (
CISEC
and
MCCI
).
Holotype
description.
Length
6.8 mm
. Entirely metallic green.
Head:
frons glabrous with punctiform sculpture. Clypeus without transverse carina. Antennae black, serrate from fourth article.
Pronotum
depressed at the sides, wider in middle, with posterior angles obtuse. White pubescence few visible at the anterior angles. Superficial and transverse sculpture, dotted with small punctures. Premarginal carinula interrupted, not entire. Marginal carinae joined at the base. Mentonniere with anterior margin slightly sinuate in middle. Prosternal plate wide and parallel.
Scutellum
with transverse carina absent, replaced by a thick callus.
Elytra
rounded at the apex, with coarse and sparse denticulation; disc with 4 (2+2) slightly visible spots of white pubescence along the suture: the first pair at of the length, the second at the apex.
Underside
with two white spots of pubescence at the sides of ventrites 2 and 3. One white spot also at the base of the first laterotergum.
Legs
with all claws simply toothed; metatarsus shorter than the metafemur. Basal metatarsomere little longer than the second (1<2+3).
Aedeagus
as in fig. 1c.
Variation.
Paratypes
range in length from
6.5 to 7.9 mm
. Two specimens have the elytral pubescent spots not visible. Two males have the frons dark green, almost black. The only apparent secondary sexual character is in the color of the frons of the females being golden, though one has a green frons like the males.
Etymology.
I name this beetle after my friend and colleague Thibaut Delsinne, discoverer of the species.
Comments.
All specimens were found on the foliage of
Macrocarpaea ovalis
(Ruiz & Pav.) Ewan
=
Macrocarpaea arborescens
Gilg (Gentianaceae)
(
Fig. 5
), where they had found refuge from adverse weather. The fact that all the specimens were found on the same species of plant suggests that this may be the larval host. The altitude where the specimens were found shows the great climatic adaptability of the genus
Agrilus
. To my knowledge, however, the record in height for South
America
belongs to a species in
Bolivia
:
A. altitudinalis
Curletti, 2015
that was found at
3,800 m
. Among the South American species that have a similar pattern of pubescent spots,
A. delsinnei
is the only one known without a carinate scutellum.