10 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 10)

Cazier, Mont A.

Gertsch, Willis John, 1906-

Vaurie, Charles.

Vaurie, Patricia.

American Museum of Natural History Scientific Publications

AMERIICAN MUSEUMNOVYITATESPUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORYCITY OF NEW YORK MAY 9, 1952 NUMBER 1562ADDITIONS TO THE BUPRESTID FAUNAOF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS, BRITISH WESTINDIES (COLEOPTERA, BUPRESTIDAE)BY MONT A. CAZIER1During the months of May, June, July, and August of 1951, Dr.Willis J. Gertsch, Dr. and Mrs. Charles Vaurie, and the author hadthe privilege of being guests at the Lerner Marine Laboratory,located on North Bimini Island in the Bimini Island group. Theobject of our stay was to make more comprehensive collec-tions of insects and spiders than were made during our pre-liminary survey in June of 1950. By using more diverse methodsof collecting, staying for a longer period of time, having more col-lectors and generally good collecting weather, we were able to in-crease our collections by some 137,000 specimens. Of this number1307 belonged to the family Buprestidae, representing 13 species,three of which are new to science and belong to three genera notpreviously recorded from the Bahama Islands. Two additionalspecies previously known only from Florida were taken. Includ-ing the genera and species recorded previously by the author(Cazier, 1951), we now know 10 genera and 19 species, includingtwo subspecies, from these islands. On the basis of our presentknowledge eight species and two subspecies are endemic in theBahamas (52%), two species are common to the West Indies andthe Bahamas (11%), two species are common to the United Statesand the Bahamas (11%), and five species are common to all threeregions (26%). The high percentage of endemics and the lowpercentage of West Indian elements may be due to the lack of1 Chairman and Associate Curator, Department of Insects and Spiders, theAmerican Museum of Natural History.2 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 1562material from other islands in the Bahamas and more especiallythose in the southern portion.Some of the series of species previously recorded have been en-larged to a considerable extent, as follows: Actenodes auronotatabrederi Cazier (184), Paratyndaris suturalis Fall (214), Psilopterabahamica Fisher (441), Chrysobothris sexfasciata Schaeffer (312),Chrysobothris chryseola lerneri Cazier (95). These appear to be themost abundant species on the island.The writer is indebted to Dr. C. M. Breder, Jr., Chairman andCurator, Department of Fishes and Aquatic Biology of the Ameri-can Museum of Natural History, for the opportunity of making aninsect survey of the island of Bimini. I would also like to expressmy thanks to Miss Marjorie Statham who made the drawings andto Mr. W. S. Fisher who checked the identifications.KEY TO THE GENERA OF BUPRESTIDAE KNOWN TO OCCURIN THE BAHAMA ISLANDS1. Scutellum visible................. 2Scutellum not visible................... Acmaeodera2. Third tarsal segment with apices prolonged laterally, overlapping most offourth segment............ ActenodesThird tarsal segment with apices not prolonged laterally, usually truncate. . 33 Metasternal episterna visible, not covered by side margins of elytra . ....... 4Metasternal episterna not visible, covered by elytral margins. . Paratyndaris4. Elytra not completely covering abdomen, males with pectinate antennae ...........XenorhipisElytra completely covering abdomen, males without pectinate antennae ... 55. Prosternal projection not, or but very slightly, expanded laterally behindanterior coxae.......... 7Prosternal projection widely expanded laterally behind anterior coxae. 66. Mesosternum completely divided medially, prosternal projection not over-lapping mesosternum behind anterior coxae ....... ......... MelanophilaMesosternum not completely divided medially, prosternal projection promi-nently overlapping mesosternum behind anterior coxae. .Chrysobothris7. Lateral margins of pronotum with two prominent carinae, size small, 2-4mm......................................... MastogeniusLateral margins of pronotum with at most a single carina, size large, 10-20mm........................................................... 88. First four tarsal segments with enlarged pads beneath ...... .............. 9First two tarsal segments with pads obsolete or lacking......... Polycesta9.. First tarsal segment subequal to second, prosternal projection broadlyrounded or truncate apically ............ ................. PsilopteraFirst tarsal segment one-third longer than second, prosternal projectionacutely pointed at apex..................................... Cinyra1952 BUPRESTID FAUNA OF BAHAMA ISLANDS 3GENUS XENORHIPISXenorhipis vauriei, new speciesFigures 1-4Small, narrow; head and disc of pronotum dark cupreous, pos-tenor pronotal angles brilliant cupreous, scutellum black, elytra42FIGS. 1-4. Xenorhipis vauriei. 1. Male antenna. X 20. 2. Femaleantenna. X 20. 3. Male. X 10. 4. Female. X 10.with humeral umbones blue, basal blue fascia extending from um-bones diagonally back to suture, ending at basal fifth of elytra,sutural margins on basal fifth and apical third greenish blue, largetestaceous triangular spot on each elytron extending from lateralmargins behind umbone diagonally back and inward to middle of4 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 1562elytra and transversely out to margin, not reaching suture, re-mainder of surface dark cupreous, under surface dark cupreous.MALE: Head evenly rounded, densely punctate, puncturescoalescent, vertex with shallowly impressed fine median line, frontsparsely clothed with short white hair; clypeus evenly roundedand narrowed anteriorly, margins strongly reflexed and extendingaround base of antennae; surface densely punctate, puncturescoalescent; antennae strongly pectinate beginning at second seg-ment, first rami nearly half as long as third, second two-thirds aslong as third, third five-sixths of length of fourth, fourth to tenthsubequal; palpi with last segment elongate, blunt at apex.Pronotum broader than long, widest at base, side margins slightlysinuate at basal third, only slightly narrowed anteriorly, surfacerugosely punctate throughout, sparsely clothed laterally withshort white hairs. Scutellum subpentagonal, surface alutaceous.Elytra slightly wider than pronotum, strongly impressed basallybetween umbones and suture, apices evenly rounded internally,margins finely serrate, surface uniformly densely minutely tuber-culate, sparsely clothed with short white hairs. Under surfacecrenulate, surface alutaceous, metasternum densely clothed withlong white pile, apical abdominal segment deeply emarginate.Length, 5 mm.; width, 1.5 mm.FEMALE: Differs from the male as follows: Head dark blue ex-cept for narrow black basal band extending between eyes; lastpalpal segment short, twice as wide apically as at base; antennaeserrate beginning at fourth segment. Pronotum with anteriormargin and sides blue, basal margin brilliant green, disc with tworound black spots that connect narrowly at middle. Elytra withbasal fourth purplish blue, apical fourth green, sutural area onapical half cupreous green, middle white lunule narrow extendingfrom margin to inner third of elytra, slightly expanded internally.Under surface of thorax bluish green, legs with femora greenapically, abdomen black except for narrow cupreous bandlaterally, surface sparsely punctate, strongly alutaceous, apicalsegment shallowly emarginate. Length, 6 mm.;. width, 2 mm.TYPE MATERIAL: Holotype, male, collected on South BiminiIsland, Bahamas, British West Indies, August 2-9, 1951 (C. andP.* Vaurie). Allotype, female, collected on South Bimini Island,Bahamas, British West Indies, June, 1951 (M. Cazier, C. and P.Vaurie). Six male paratypes collected on South Bimini: three inJune, two in July, and one in August. Four female paratypes1952 BUPRESTID FAUNA OPt BAHAMA ISLANDS 5collected on South Bimini: two in June, one in July, and one inAugust. All types in the collection of the American Museum ofNatural History. All but one of the specimens were collected inrearing cages from wood gathered on South Bimini, and one wastaken on the end of a dead twig on South Bimini.There is little variability in the males of this species. In thefemales the length varies from 6 to 8 mm., and in the largest speci-men the black areas on the pronotal disc are very small.Xenorhipis vauriei is very easily separated from any of thethree previously known species by its brilliant coloration, type ofelytral markings, and larger size. This is the first record of theoccurrence of this genus outside the United States. Xenorhipisosborni is known only from Texas, X. brendeli. LeConte is wide-spread throughout the eastern United States, and X. vejdovskyiObenberger (of doubtful' validity) is from Connecticut. Thisspecies is named in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Vaurie who have col-lected much valuable material for the American Museum ofNatural History.GENUS POLYCESTAPolycesta abdita BarrPolycesta abdita BARR, 1949, Amer. Mus. Novitates, no. 1432, p. 17.During June and July, 1951, 24 males and 11 females' of thisspecies were collected on mangrove trees. The male genitalia andall external characters agree with those of examples collected 'inFlorida and on the Florida Keys.TYPE LOCALITY: Chocoloskee, Florida.NEW RECORDS FOR BAHAMA ISLANDS: South Bimini Island,Bahamas, British West Indies, June and July, 1951 (M. Cazier, C.and P. Vaurie).Polycesta angulosa Jacquelin DuvalPolycesta angulosa JACQUELIN DUVAL, 1857, in Ramon de la Sagra, Histoirephysique, politique et naturelle de File de-Cuba, Animaux articules (French edi-tion), p. 62; 1857 (Spanish edition), vol. 7, p. 28.This is one of the species referred to by the author (Cazier,1951) as being unidentifiable until'male specimens were available.During June, 1951, three males and three additional females werecollected, making a total of nine specimens. These examples agreein every respect with specimens from Florida except that the6 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 1562middle lobe of the male genitalia is slightly more elongate, thelateral lobes are slightly more deeply cleft, and the tips are moreapproximate. The latter differences are considered as being in-dividual variations and not of specific value.TYPE LOCALITY: Cuba.NEW RECORDS FOR BAHAMA ISLANDS: South Bimini Island,Bahamas, British West Indies, June 13-17, 1950 (M. Cazier, F.Rindge); same locality, June, 1951 (M. Cazier, C. and P. Vaurie).Polycesta speciesOne additional species is still unassociated with males and atpresent unidentifiable. It is a large female specimen (21.5 mm.)and is violaceous in color. It was collected on South BiminiIsland, Bahamas, British West Indies, June 13, 1950 (M. Cazier,F. Rindge).GENUS CHRYSOBOTHRISChrysobothris tranquebarica (Gmelin)Buprestis impressa FABRICIUS, 1787, Mantissa insectorum, vol. 1, p. 182, no.61 (preoccupied).Buprestis tranquebarica GMELIN, 1788, Linnaeus, Systema naturae, 13th ed.,vol. 1, pt. 4, no.4, p. 1932.During 1951 two specimens of this widespread species werecollected, and they agree in all respects with specimens fromFlorida, Republic of Dominica, and Andros Island, Bahamas.TYPE LOCALITY: "Indies."RECORDED DISTRIBUTION IN BAHAMA ISLANDS: Mangrove Cay,Andros Island.NEW RECORDS FOR BAHAMA ISLANDS: South Bimini Island,Bahamas, British West Indies, May, 1951 (M. Cazier, W.Gertsch), July, 1951 (C. and P. Vaurie).GENUS MASTOGENIUSMastogenius antennatus, new speciesSmall, uniformly black, pronotum and elytra moderatelydensely clothed with rather long yellow hairs.MALE; Head with front moderately convex and elevated aboveeyes, deep median impression extending from near base to middleof antennal pits, margins along eyes deeply impressed, surfacesparsely punctate, punctures separated by about their own widths;1952 BUPRESTID FAUNA OF BAHAMA ISLANDS 7eyes with inner margins shallowly sinuate, narrowly convergingabove; epistoma shallowly emarginate anteriorly; antennae long,reaching behind humeral umbone of elytra to basal third, seg-ments 1 and 2 globose and subequal, segment 3 shorter and nar-rower than 2 and about one-third of the length of segments 4 and5, segments 4 to 10 shallowly serrate apically, segment 11 oblongovate and slightly longer than tenth, segments 4 to 11 sparselyclothed with long yellowish hairs. Pronotum wider than long,convex, widest slightly behind middle, anterior margin truncate,posterior margins shallowly sinuate, lateral margins evenlyrounded and not visible from above for anterior third, sublateralcarina slightly sinuate, extending from apex to base, narrowly con-verging with upper carina, dorsal surface crenulate laterally andon basal two-thirds, anterior third punctate, punctures separatedby about their own widths, surface with semi-erect hairs tiltedantelaterally, basal margin glabrous and impunctate except fornumerous small grooves along margin. Scutellum subtriangular,shallowly crenulate. Elytra equal in width to middle of pronotum,slightly wider than base of pronotum, side margins parallel to apicalthird, evenly rounded to apex, apical surface slightly elevated,entire surface rugosely punctate, semi-erect hairs tilted postlater-ally, base deeply impressed from umbones to suture, basal marginglabrous and impunctate. Under surface black, sparsely clothedwith semi-erect white hair, prosternum without antennal groove,anterior margin truncate, not reflexed, last abdominal segmentevenly rounded, legs with femora widened medially, tibiae round,slender and subequal in length to femora, first tarsal segment oneand one-half times length of second, second to fourth subequal,third and fourth segments densely pilose beneath. Length, 2.5mm.; width, 1.0 mm.TYPE MATERIAL: Holotype, male, collected on South BiminiIsland, Bahamas, British West Indies, May, 1951 (M. Cazier, W.Gertsch).This species, although very distinct, appears to resemble mostclosely M. subcyaneous crenulatus Knull but differs from it in itsblack rather than piceous color, longer antennae, with very shortthird segment, long and semi-erect elytral pile, and rugose elytralsculpturing. In addition to the above characters it can be dis-tinguished from M. subcyaneous by its black coloration ratherthan blue elytra and black pronotum as in that species. From M.castlei Chamberlain and Knull it can be separated by its black8 AMERICAN MUSBUM,, NOVITATES NO. 1562color throughout rather than having the head and prothoraxbright metallic blue and the elytra metallic green, by having thethird antennal segment one-third of the length of the fourthrather thoan half as long, by having the pronotum crenulate for themost part rather than punctate, and by the pile. M. antennatusdiffers from M. puncticollis Schaeffer in being pilose rather thanglabrous, in having longer antennae, in its crenulate pronotal andrugose elytral sculpturing. From M. impressipennis Fall it canbe distinguished by having the third antennal segment muchshorter than the fifth, pronotum widest, slightly behind the mid-dle, and lack of pronotal impressions. It differs from M. robustusin being black and in having the impressed line on the front ofthe head deeply impressed. M. knulli Obenberger from Texas isof questionable validity, and the unique type had no antennae.However, judging from the poor description of M. knulli, M. an-tennatus differs in having no pronotal impressions, and the pro-notum is crenulate rather than punctate.Only one species of this genus has been recorded from the WestIndies. Mastogenius uniformis Waterhouse was described from theisland of Grenada which is the southernmost island of the Wind-ward Group in the Lesser Anitilles,. M. antennatus differs from thisspecies in not having a groove on the prosternum for the receptionof the antennae, in its longer antennae, in its rugose elytral sculp-turing, and in its longer first tarsal segment. Fisher (1925) wasdoubtful about retaining M. uniformts in the genus because of theantennal groove and the short first tarsal segment. Lack of ad-ditional material still prevents a definite conclusion concerning itsgeneric status.GENUS CINYRACinyra bahamica, new speciesFigure 5Medium-sized moderately robust, greenish black; pronotumand elytra with densely pilose depressions.Head moderately convex, eyes narrowly converging above,vertex with shallow median depressed line, front with irregularimpunctate areas, densely punctate around eyes, vertex moder-ately punctate, punctures separated by about their own widths,front irregularly punctate, surface sparsely clothed with long whitepile; epistoma shallowly emarginate; labrum truncate apically,1952 BUPRESTID FAUNA OF BAHAMA ISLANDS 9sparsely pilose; antennae extending almost to hind pronotal mar-gins, shallowly serrate beginning at fourth segment, first segmentelongate cylindrical, second segment short, ovate, about half aslong as third, third subequal to fourth, all segments sparselypilose; last segment of maxillary palpi short, truncate apically.Pronotum wider than long, widest at base, margins almost straighton basal third, gradually converging apically, surface with fivedepressed, densely pilose areas, one median, elongate, two lateralrounded, and two, lateral rounded before the middle, small deepmedian depression in front of scutellum, lateral and apical marginsdensely punctate, disc irregularly, sparsely punctate, puncturesFIG. 5. Cinyra bahamica. X 5.large and with a short hair extending from anterior margin.Scutellum subquinqueform, impunctate. Elytra slightly widerthan pronotum, subparallel to behind middle, obliquely converg-ing to apex, apices dehiscent internally, shallowly emarginate, notspined, surface with irregular, depressed, densely pilose areas, notsymmetrically arranged between each elytron (fig. 5), base ofelytra slightly rugose, remainder of surface sparsely, finelypunctate, punctures separated by about three to four times theirown widths, each puncture with a short hair, suture on apicalhalf slightly elevated, striae impressed on apical two-thirds, notevident on basal third. Under surface shining black, with greenishreflections, moderately densely clothed with long white pile;10 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 1562prosternum densely punctate, anterior margin with prominentelevation on each side of middle, median portion flat, prosternalprojection acute at apex, not expanded behind coxae; legs black,with greenish and cupreous reflections, tarsal claws simple, apicalabdominal segment truncate, subapical depression shallow andirregular, lateral apical angles short but acutely pointed. Length,12.5 mm.; width, 5.0 mm.TYPE MATERIAL: Holotype, collected on South Bimini Island,Bahamas, British West Indies, June, 1951 (M. Cazier).This species appears to be most closely related to the CubanCinyra multipunctata (Olivier) but can be separated from it bybeing greenish black rather than cupreous, by its broader shape,by its larger pronotal and head punctures, more shallow medianpronotal impression, by having the third antennal segment sub-equal to fourth rather than longer than fourth. From Cinyraalbonotata (Castelnau and Gory), another closely related species,it can be distinguished by the median, depressed, pilose area on thepronotum, less deeply incised anterior epistomal margin, by itsmore robust shape, by its more dehiscent and less broadly truncateelytral apices, and by having the median portion of the prosternalmargin flat, not elevated as in that species.BIBLIOGRAPHYCAZIER, MONT A.1951. The Buprestidae of the Bahama Islands, British West Indies (Coleop-tera, Buprestidae). Amer. Mus. Novitates, no. 1517, pp. 1-9.FISHER, WARREN S.1925. A revision of the West Indian Coleoptera of the family Buprestidae.Proc. U. S. Nat]. Mus., vol. 65, art. 9, no. 2522, pp. 1-207.

Buprestid fauna of Bahama Islands

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