Stegnocephala xanthopyga (Suffrian, 1863)

General description: 

Blue-black body, the head, roots of feelers, glassy pronotum, the pygidium and the last two abdomincal segments bright yellow, the elytra copper-blue; dense dots and stripes with flat, glossy interspaces. [Translated from the original German in Suffrian, 1863].

Morphology: 

Of the same size and habitat as S. cuprascens, but the undersides and legs are more purely darkened and have sharper margins. Additionally, the puncture stripes are much finer and not grooved. The head is flat with fine lines along the outside of the forehead, with a somewhat withdrawn frons. The surfaces are lacquer-glossy yellow, somewhat brighter underneath. The extended, long and quite deeply hollowed eyes are narrower at the top; the middle of the upper lip and the mouthparts are black. The antennae are half the body’s length and quite slender. The root segment is thin, over three times longer than wide; the second segment is thin and elliptical, almost half as long and wide as that of S. cuprascens. The next two segments are narrow, inverted-cone-shaped, each half longer than the second. The fifth is even longer, and the following ones gradually and slowly decline again, so that the tenth is again as long as the second, and the last segment, with its short cone-shaped protrusions, measures about the same length as the seventh. Meanwhile, all segments from the upper end of the fifth onwards are softly widened towards the interior and pressed together. The color of the fifth lower segments are yellow with darkly-wisped upper sides, whose wisps form a rather clear marginated line on the last segment but envelope almost the entire upper half of the fifth segment. The six upper segments are black, covered with a thin layer of hair. The pronotum’s smaller half arches strongly in the front, somewhat flattens out at the back, and presses widely together over the rectangular, deeply withdrawn front edges, after which it becomes narrower. The finely edged sides are lightly curved in the latter half of the pronotum. In the front half, they are also lightly widened out and converge almost into a straight line only in the front third. Additionally, the hind edges are almost rectangular, with a short, sharp protruding callus, and rise in front of this callus through a cross-indent. The hind edge is very lightly curved, with a short, wide, unclearly doubly-rimmed mid-tip. Either side in front of the mid-tip lies a short, deep cross-indent, whose end, after a long interruption, reappears in the front over the widened area of the side rim. The surfaces are flat as glass, bright yellow, with washed-out, murky yellow mid field. The upward-slanting scutellum is triangular, with cliff-like hind edges and glossy black. The elytra are somewhat wider in the front than the pronotum, not 1/4 longer than they are wide; at the back, they narrow down into smooth arches and then round off short. The roots are softly pressed downwards, the back moderately humped around the scutellum tip. The shoulder humps rise up short but sturdy and are supported on the inside by a deep long indent. Even the side flanks are strong; covering these, the elytra are widely pressed together. The puncture-stripes are very regular and of moderate intensity, but notable throughout their entire length. The ninth puncture-stripe somewhat arches over the side flank, crossing the indent. The interspaces are flat, glossy, very finely wrinkled. The color is a beautiful, pure, crimson-shining copper blue, which corresponds to that of our Chr. Cuprea. A narrow root fringe and the very wide, enveloping fringe of the side-flank which the root fringe connects to are glossy black. The pygidium, along with last two abdominal segments, is bright yellow. The other parts of the abdomen next to the hind chest, the shoulder blades and the legs are lined with a pure, black, sharp edge. The front and mid-hips with the mid chest are tan, the front chest with the enveloping side of the pronotum is again bright yellow. The front edge of the pygidium is not really pulled outwards, but, together with the mouthparts, synclinally curved. All other features are identical to those of S. cuprascens.

[Translated from the original German in Suffrian, 1863].

Distribution: 

Brazil (Museum Clark., where Petropolis is identified as place of origin). [Translated from Suffrian, 1863].

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith