A. Théry.
New Buprestid Beetles Collected in the Solomon Islands and Fiji Islands by Dr. W. M. Mann, with Descriptions of Some Other New Indo-Malayan Species.
Psyche 44:33-55, 1937.

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New Buprestid Beetles
NEW BUPRESTID BEETLES COLLECTED IN THE
SOLOMON ISLANDS AND FIJI ISLANDS BY DR. W. M. MANN, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME OTHER NEW INDO-MALAYAN SPECIES
BY A. T H ~ Y
Attach6 au Mushm National d9Histoire Naturelle de Paris The present paper contains descriptions of new species of Buprestid~ collected, for the most part, by Dr. W. M. Mann in the Solomon Islands and the Fiji Islands. I have to thank my colleague, Dr. P. J. Darlington, of the Museum of Com- parative Zoology, Harvard College, Cambridge, U. S. A., in whose care Dr. Mann's insects are at present placed, for lending me the specimens here described. Genus Paracupta H. Deyr.
Paracupta meyevi Kerr., Ann. SOC. Ent. Belg. XLIV, 1900, p. 63.
This species is still very rare in collections; one Q speci- men only was captured by Dr. Mann, at Mt. Victoria, Viti Levu, Fiji Islands; I have compared this specimen with the unique type in the collection of the British Museum to which it is exactly similar. Kerremans' description is not quite exact; the author states that the five furrows of the prono- tum are uninterrupted ; as a matter of fact only the two ex- ternal and the median furrows are so, the two others are lightly interrupted at the middle. The Kerremans Collection at the Paris Museum contains a specimen of this species-I Paracupta evansi n. sp. (Pl. 111, Fig. 1) Length : 19 mm. ; breadth : 6.5 mm-d. Elongate, navicu- 'The first collection of the late Mr. Kerremaks was sold to the British Museum in the year 1903.
A new collection containing the
species described by this author from 1903 to 1915 was divided after his death; the African species except those of Madagascar have been purchased by the Mushe du Congo, at Tervueren (Belgium), the rest of the collection by the MusGum National dYHistoire Naturelle at Paris.



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Jar, rather convex, narrower behind than in fronty feebly gibbous above. Head and pronoturn green, with the bottoms of the depremions coppery xed; scutellum reddish; elytra brown with a slight greenish tinge. Beneath, shining green with cupreous reflexions, the &reme tip of the last segment reddishy the ground of a11 the depressions, above and be- neath, clothed with deciduous, short pubescence, intermixed with a brownish secretion. Anhnn~, apex of the tibiz, and tarsi entirely of a bright yellow co10r; the rest of the tibk and the femora castaneous.
Head triangularly imprased in front, the summit of this irnpm~sim reaching the. vertex ; front separated from the eye by a shaHow groove interrupted at the middle of its length and communicating with the hntd imp~ession, Eyes large, a little more widely ~epamted in front than on the vertex. Antenn~ reaching the level of the inkrmediake COXE. Fronoturn nearly once and a third as wid^ as long- ; as wide at the anterior margin as long. Anterior margin arcuately emarginate. Greatest width at about posterior two sevenths of kngth; sides nearly straight from the anterior angles to middle, then arcuate, and feebly narrowed quite near the base. The base nearIy transversely truncate; the posterior angles feebly acute; the lateml margin with lateral carina not we11 defined? coarsely punctate. Disk with an entire, narrow? longitudinal stria at middle; a broad irregular de- pression dong the lateral margin on each side extending from near the anterior margin to the base, and widest at the be, narrowed anteriorly, with the bottom very finely rugose. Behind the anterior margin, on each sidey there is a little, finely punctured Area. The disk is coarsely punctured. Scutellum smal1, smooth, shining? wider than long, Elytxa wider at the shoulders than the pronoturn at the base? truncate at the humera1 angles; the sides nearly parallel to the apical thirdy then straight and narrowed to apex, with sides stxong!y serrate from the apical third to the tip, the serration becoming obsolete at the apex, the sutural .angles feebly acute. The side of the disk with a large de- pression dong the lateral margin, extending from the humerus to the tip, this depre~~ion very findy and very densely punctate, limited exteriarly by the epipleural carha. Each elytxon with three elevated, parallel, ghining COB*, not



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19371 New Buprestid Beetles 35
including the scutellar one which is short, extending only from the base to anterior third and then united to the sutural one; the intervals between the cost% very finely and densely punctate? less shining than the cost=. The first costa only is entire; between the second and third cosk, near the humerus, there is a short obsolete costula. Beneath very shining on the smooth spaces, and sparsely punctured. Prosternal episterna and a broad depression on each side of the abdominal segments finely and densely punctate and covered with a very fine recumbent pubescence. The last segment with a small triangular emargination at the apex. Prosternum feebly convex ; the prosternal process strongly grooved? strongly punctured in the region of the sulcus. Described from a single specimen (type, Museum of Com- parative Zoology no. 22,507) collected at Taviuni, Somo Somo, Fiji Islands, by Dr. W. M. Mann. There is also, in the British Museum's collection? a specimen of this new species captured in the Fiji Islands by Mr. Evans. This specimen is a little smaller.
The description of this species agrees pretty well with that of Paracupta dilutipes F'airm., Pet. Nouv. Ent. II., 1878, p. 278, from the same region; the type of this species seems to be lost. Fairmaire's description is so short that it is quite useless ; the author says : "Elongata, antice posticeque fere a?quaZiter attenuata? modice conzexa, faseo-aneu, metalliea; foveis duabus prothoracis vittaque elytrorum marginali cupreis griseo-sericeis; subtus der~se Zuteo sericans, medio fere lmvis; afitennis pedibusque flavo-testaceis, femoribus paulo obscurioribus; elytris post medium attenuatis, parum profunde striatis, intervallis fere pIanis, strigosis." P. evansi is evidently 44bicolor" above. The expressions in Roman type in Fairmaire's description, above, seem not to agree with the description of P. evansi mihi.
Paracupta manni n. sp. (Pl. 111, Fig. 2) Length : 19 mm.; breadth: 6 mm.-d.
Elongate, rather
acuminate posteriorly. Above uniformly golden green with reddish tinge at the tips of the elytra. Beneath light cupre-
ous ; antennze and legs light brown.
Head rather wide, with a triangular depression in front,



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36 Psyche [March- June
the bottom of this depression very finely punctate and clothed with an inconspicuous pale pubescence. The epistoma sepa- rated from the front by a swelling. Eyes elliptic, feebly con- vex, converging to the occiput ; antenn~ reaching the level of the anterior cotyloid cavities.
Pronotum a little more than once and one third as wide at base as at the anterior margin, and a little more than once and a half as wide as long; widest at the base; the anterior margin strongly arcuately emarginate; the sides feebly at- tenuate from the base to the anterior third, then arcuately narrowed to the anterior angles, the posterior acute and rather prominent; the base nearly tranversely truncate. Disk coarsely sculptured, the punctures becoming more distinct near the sides and the anterior angles; the middle of the surface narrowly furrowed; each side with a deep, wide depression, finely punctured, occupying half of the length and reaching the posterior margin. Scutellum small, rounded posteriorly and straight an- teriorly, smooth.
Elytra as wide as the pronotum at base, slightly expanded and truncate at the shoulders, then nearly parallel to behind the middle, and straight and strongly acuminate to the tips, strongly and sharply serrate along the margin from the middle to apex; the sutural angle toothed. Surface with eight punctate striz, the juxtasutural stria reaching only from the base to the basal quarter of the length; the intervals between the stri~ very slightly convex.
The prothoracic episterna, and the sides beneath, very finely punctate and clothed with very inconspicuous re- cumbent pubescence; the middle of the body shining, gla- brous, very sparsely punctate. Prosternal process deeply furrowed and coarsely punctate at middle; first abdominal segment flattened at middle ; last abdominal segment brown- ish, constricted at apex, angularly and feebly emarginate. Legs and tarsi long.
A single specimen (type, M. C. Z. no. 22,508) of this very beautiful species was captured by Dr. W. M. Mann at Nadarivatu, Viti Levu, Fiji Islands.
It seems to me that this species is very unlike a11 others in the genus.




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New Buprestid Beetles
Genus Haplotrinchus Kerr.
Haplotrinchus manni n. sp. (Pl. 111, Fig. 3) Length : 12 mm. ; breadth : 4.5 mm.- d. Wide, very at- tenuate posteriorly, the elytra tailed at apex. Green above, with violaceous reflexions; beneath green? the tarsi bright brown.
Head as wide as the anterior margin of the pronotum; eyes slightly convex, regularly elliptic, and very much closer on the vertex than in front. Front with a rounded depres- sion near the epistoma occupying its entire breadth, and a longitudinal one above the first and separated from it by a smooth and shining transverse swelling ; this second depres- sion reaches the upper level of the eyes and is separated from the anterior margin of the eyes by a narrow, smooth, and shining carina; the bottom of this depression is clothed with inconspicuous pubescence. Epistome emarginate. An- tennal cavities subtriangular. Antenn~ reaching to base of the pronotum, serrate from the fifth joint, the fourth and fifth subequal, the third joint a third shorter than the fourth, and the second a third shorter than the third. Pronotum widest at base, about once and a half as wide at base as in front, nearly once and three quarters as wide as long. The anterior margin slightly bisinuate ; the sides rather regularly rounded, with a little notch near the an- terior angles produced by a small transverse furrow which runs along the anterior margin; the posterior angles rec- tangular; the sides bordered by a sharp carina, feebly sinuous, which reaches to the anterior transverse furrow already mentioned. Base slightly bisinuate. Surface bounded on each side by a broad cariniform swelling which runs along the lateral margin for two thirds of length from base; this swelling limited outside by an impression, very finely punctured at bottom, occupying the whole length of the pronotum. The middle of the disk smooth, shining, irregular, coarsely punctured, with a median, longitudinal, obsolete, finely punctate sulcus.
Scutellum cordiform, convex, smooth? shining. Elytra once and a quarter as wide at the shoulders as the pronotum at base, outlined by a narrow smooth carina at the base, the shoulders expanded and forming a rounded lobe



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38 Psyche [March- June
with a little notch behind; slightly enlarged to the posterior third, then sinuously constricted, ending in a trispinous tail each side of the suture, the external spine of each elytron longer and more acute than the median one but not reaching the level of the median one. Disk shining, punctate-striate, the intervals convex and punctate. Each elytron with seven large, finely punctate, and inconspicuously pubescent areas, arranged as follows : one in the humeral depression ; another one, large and rounded, at the middle of the length of the elytra, nearer the margin than the suture; a third one marginal, elongate, in the posterior third; and a juxta- sutural one at the posterior fifth ; the other areas less marked, disposed between the humeral and the median areas. Anterior margin of the prosternum angulately prominent on each side, with a little triangular notch at the middle ; the prosternal process densely punctate, pubescent, not mar- gined. Prothoracic episterna strongly and rather densely punctate on the outer sides, smooth and sparsely punctate on the inner sides. Abdominal segments strongly but sparsely punctate, the anterior angles finely and densely punctate and inconspicuously pubescent. The last sternite rounded at apex, with an acute spine on each side. Aedeagus narrow, its sides furnished with some little, erect, spaced denticles. Parameres angulate at tip.
The 9 is generally larger than the cr; the last sternite is the same at apex; the prosternal process is strongly and sparsely punctate, not pubescent.
Six specimens of this new species (type d, M. C. Z. no. 22,509) were captured by Dr. W. M. Mann at Vanua Ava, Fiji Islands; a paratype stands in my own collection at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris, and another in the British Museum.
Genus Nosotrinchus Obb.
Nosotrinchus solomonensis n. sp. (PI. Ill, Fig. 4) Length : 12 mm. ; breadth : 4 mm.- ( ? Q ) . Elongate, at-
tenuate posteriorly, the apex of the elytra not forming a tail, as in N. coeruleipennis Fairm.; blue, elytra olive green with a longitudinal purple band, this band very narrow near the scutellum, enlarged behind and covering the apical third



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19371 New 3uprestid. Beetles 39
of the elytra; apex black; the last two segments of the abdomen blackish.
Head moderately large, with a feeble tranverse depression between the eyes ; occiput finely striate, finely and sparsely punctate; the part of the front between the eyes wider than long, its sides converging toward the vertex; epistoma not distinctly separated from the front, slightly emarginate. Antenna1 cavities wide, triangular, with a little oblique carina above. Antennae reaching- nearly to the middle of the length of the pronotum, serrate from the fourth joint, the first joint rather long, the second subglobular, the third nearly twice and a half as long as the second and equal to the fourth.
Fronoturn widest at base, nearly once and a fifth as broad at base as at apex, and once and a half as wide as long; the anterior margin nearly transversely truncate, with a swollen margin, latter feebly obliterated at middle ; the sides feebly arcuate, sinuate before the posterior angles, which are acute; the marginal carina arcuate, interrupted at the anterior quarter ; the prothoracic episterna nearly smooth ; the base widely and somewhat deeply bidnuate. Disk feebly and sparsely punctate, more strongly and rugosely at the sides; on each side of the median line, not far from the base, a very deep impression the bottom of which is crossed by an oblique stria inclined outward and forward at an angle of 450a Scutellum small, transverse, nearly cordifom. Elytra once and a fifth wider than pronotum, long, sinuate at sides from shoulders to middle, and arcuately attenuate from middle to apex; strongly tridentate at tips, the poi+ terior half strongly serrate; surface punetato-striate, the striae stronger on the sides, the intervals flat, equal, and obsoletely punctate. Punctures of the striae of the sidea anteriorly transverse and forming some wrinkles. Anterior margin of the prosternum slightly emarginate, finely margined; prosternal process smooth, with swollen margin. Beneath, aciculately punctate, the last abdominal segment tridentate at apex, with a little denticle on each side. (The rfd- in the genus Nosotrinchws generally have the last abdominal segment emarg-inate between two spines, among the Q 9 it is bi-emarginate, with three spines.) Tarsi half as long as the tibise; claws short and rather strong.



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40 Psyche [March- June
A single specimen of this new species (type, M. C. 2. no. 22,510) was captured at Malaita, Auki, Solomon Islands, by Dr. W. M. Mann.
This species is very like N. coeruleipennis Fairm.l from the Fiji Islands, but is specifically distinct by the following characters.
1. The front without a depression.
2. The depressions of the base of the pronotum. 3. Sides of the pronotum sinuate before the anterior angles. 4. The color is different. N. coeruleipennis Fairm. has the head, the pronotum, and the lower surface, except the last segment at apex, cupreous, the elytra purplish with apex blackish.
Genus Melobasis C. & G.
Melobusis albertisi Th6ry
I described this species in the Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, LI. (1923), p. 7, from four Q 9 specimens captured at Kataw, N. Guinea, by M. d9Albertis. A specimen of this species in the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard College Collection), captured at Humboldt Bay by Dr. Thomas Barbour, is a *; it differs from the ? type in its slender form, the frontal punctures very close and confluent, the pubescence thicker on the occiput, the posterior angles of the pronotum less divergent, the intervals between the elytral striae slightly convex, the anterior femora dull, the abdomen less pubescent and with green reflections, and the last abdominal segment longitudinally wrinkled. Perhaps this form is a new variety.
Subgenus Diceropygus H, Deyr.
Diceropygus stevensi n. sp. (PI. IV, Fig. 8) Length : 15 mm. ; breadth : 5 mm.- Q . A,eneous, the punc- tures green and shining; tarsi bluish, claws steel blue and more shining; labrum green. Elongate, distinctly more at- tenuate posteriorly than in front. Elytra as wide at the shoulders as at the posterior third of their length. lNosotrinchus sirnondsi Obb., Sbornik II., 1924, p. 13, is a synonym of N. coeru,leipennis Fairm.




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New Buprestid Beetles
Head narrower than the anterior margin of the pronotum, very feebly convex in front, flat on the vertex, finely, densely, and irregularly punctate; front with a narrow, smooth, longitudinal carina reaching nearly to the epistoma; latter emarginate, not distinctly separate from the front. Anterior margins of the eyes converging posteriorly. The space sepa- rating the eyes, on the vertex, equal in width to the width of the eyes. Antennae not reaching the base of the pronotum, serrate from the fourth joint, the first joint elongate, the second twice as long as wide, the third as long as the second and slightly longer than the fourth.
Pronotum widest at base, a little more than once and a half as wide at base as at apex, and once and two thirds as wide as long; the anterior margin rather broadly and deeply bisinuate, finely margined; the sides straight and nearly parallel at base, then rounded and feebly convergent in front, each margined laterally by a regularly arcuate, sharp carina, slightly bent in front and reaching the anterior margin a little below the anterior angle; the posterior angles acute and slightly divergent ; the base feebly bisinuate ; the surface regularly convex, feebly flattened in the middle, punctate, the punctures green, slightly oval, larger, denser, and more oval on the sides than in the middle, and with an irregular, impunctate, longitudinal space at middle, and with a little impressed fovea in front of the scutellum. Scutellum wide (0.8 by 0.5 mm.), rounded laterally and posteriorly and truncate in front, smooth, shining, some- times reddish.
Elytra as wide as pronotum at base, subtruncate at the shoulders, widest at the shoulders, nearly parallel to apical third, then straight and attenuate to the tips, which are separately rounded and acutely serrate, the denticles be- coming very small at apex. Sutural edge margined in api- cal third of its length. Surface with nine striae, the bottom of each with a line of very transverse punctures, the intervals between the striae very convex, the third and fourth striae feebly divergent at the base, leaving a coarsely punctured space, the fifth abutting a mass of shining punctures; the intervals becoming obsolete at base, except the fifth, which is prolonged in front.
Prothoracic episterna finely and regularly punctate,



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42 Psyche [March- June
pubescent; prosternal process flat, acute at apex, finely and regularly punctate, clothed with long, very sparse greyish hairs ; the last abdominal segment with four strong spines at end, the lateral not so strong as the median, which are very long, acute, and limit a small semicircular emaxgination. Tarsi rather hg, the first two joints narrow, the two fol- lowing expanded, claws rather long and thickened at the base. Three specimens of this new species, all of which are females (type, M. C. Z. no. 22,611), were captured at Mt. Misim, Morobe District, New Guinea, by Mr. Herbert Ste- vens. A paratype stands in my own collection at the Mus4um National #Histoire Naturelle, Paris. I do not know any Dic-gus with which I may compare this; it is so much like Briseis cues Kerr. that it seems possible to confuse the two species. They can be distin- guished by the scutellum, which is twice as broad in Diceropygå´u stevensi as in Briseis cwrta Kerr., and by the lack of a lateral protuberance on the prosternal margin of Diceropygus stewmi. The latter will be placed next to Briseis cwrta; it appears that the characteristics given for the subgenus Briseis are without value.
Diceropygus brevicollis n. sp. (PI. IV, Fig. 10) Length: 12 mm.; breadth: 4 mm.-d. Bronzy green above, the elytra with three steel blue spots and with some slightly purplish reflections; lower surface brownish, with bluish and purplish tinges. Legs brownish, the femora green anteriorly, tarsi and antennae greenish blue ; prosternal process and middle of the metastemum green. Elongate, distinctly more attenuate posteriorly than in front. Head slightly convex on the vertex, nearly flat in front, very finely and eonfluently punctate, clothed with rather long greyish pubescence. Eyes broad and regularly elliptic, their anterior edges slightly convergent toward the vertex; the interval between the eyes a fifth wider than the breadth of the eyes. Epistoma not distinctly separated from the front, very slightly emarginate. Antennae reaching the base of the prothorax below, aerrate from the fourth joint, all joints except the first nearly equal in length, the first joint yellow at base, apex of the last joints brownish; palpi brownish. Pronoturn short, widest at the middle, twice as wide as



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19371 New Buprestid Beetles 43
long, scarcely once and a fifth as wide at base as at the anterior margin. The anterior margim nearly straight in the middle, bordered by a stria; the anterior angles project- ing forward; the sides slightly converging from middle to the anterior angles, sinuate from middle to the posterior angles, which are slightly divergent. The aides margined in basal two thirds of their length by a smooth, straight carina. The base tranversely truncate. Surface sparsely and un- equally punctate, the punctures well separated on the middle, but becoming much denser and very confluent at the sides, which are clothed with long recumbent pubescence. Scutellum very wide, straight in front, nearly semicircular posteriorly, the disk with a few punctures in the middle, Elytra a little wider at the humeral angles than the pronoturn at the base; the shoulders slightly expanded and rounded; the sides nearly parallel from the shoulders to behind the middle, then feebly attenuate to the tips, which are separately narrowly rounded; the sides in the posterior marginal half very acutely serrate, the denticles closer apically but also strong laterally. Sutural margin bordered by a sharp carina in the apical half of its length. Surface unequal, with a narrow and deep depression between the base and the humerus, striate-punctate, the strise obsolete, the punctures well marked but irregular, becoming stronger toward the sides. The intervals slightly and irregularly convex, becoming quite obsolete at base. The steel blue