Saturday, December 3, 2011

[Insect • 2011] Philanthaxia pseudoaenea from NE Thailand • Four new species of the genus Philanthaxia from Southeast Asia


Figures 1–5. Philanthaxia, habitus, dorsal view
1 Philanthaxia pseudoaenea sp. n., holotype, 8.1 mm 2 P. jakli sp. n., holotype, 7.5 mm
3 P. chalcogenoides sp. n., holotype, 10.0 mm 4 P. lombokana sp. n., holotype – male, 8.0 mm 5
P. lombokana sp. n., paratype – female, 10.0 mm.

Abstract
Descriptions of four new species of the genus Philanthaxia Deyrolle, 1864: P. pseudoaenea sp. n. (Thailand), P. jakli sp. n. (Indonesia, Sumatra), P. chalcogenioides sp. n. (Indonesia, Sabah) and P. lombokana sp. n. (Indonesia, Lombok) are given. The new species and male genitalia are illustrated and compared with the most similar congeners. Sexual dimorphism of P. iris Obenberger, 1938 is described and discussed.
Keywords: Taxonomy, Coleoptera, Buprestidae, Thomassetiini, Philanthaxia, new species, sexual dimorphism, Oriental region

Philanthaxia pseudoaenea
Type locality. Northeastern Thailand, Pak Chong, Korate, Kasetsart Farm.
Etymology. The specific epithet “pseudoaenea” expresses the similarity with the sympatric species, P. aenea (Saunders, 1867).
Distribution. Central and northeastern Thailand, Pak Chong province.

Bílý, S. & Nakládal, O. 2011. Four new species of the genus Philanthaxia Deyrolle, 1864 from Southeast Asia and comments on P. iris Obenberger, 1938 (Coleoptera, Buprestidae, Thomassetiini). ZooKeys. 116: 37–47. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.116.1403

Photo: four new jewel beetles uncovered in Thailand and Indonesia http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0409-hance_jewelbeetles.html via @mongabay