Cyphogastra foveicollis
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| Cyphogastra foveicollis | |
|---|---|
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| Mounted specimen | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Infraorder: | Elateriformia |
| Family: | Buprestidae |
| Genus: | Cyphogastra |
| Species: | C. foveicollis |
| Binomial name | |
| Cyphogastra foveicollis (Boisduval, 1835) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Cyphogastra foveicollis is a species of jewel beetle in the family Buprestidae, subfamily Chrysochroinae, and tribe Chrysochroini.[1] It was originally described as Buprestis foveicollis by Boisduval in 1835 from specimens collected during the voyage of the Astrolabe in the Pacific.[2] It is the type species of the genus Cyphogastra.[3] The species is native to West Papua in the New Guinean region.[4]
Cyphogastra foveicollis was first described by Boisduval in 1835 under the name Buprestis foveicollis, based on material collected during Jules Dumont d'Urville's 1826–1829 expedition aboard the corvette Astrolabe through the Pacific.[2] The species was subsequently transferred to the genus Cyphogastra when Henri Deyrolle erected that genus in 1864 in his monograph on the Buprestidae of the Malay Archipelago, based on specimens collected by Alfred Russel Wallace.[5] Bellamy subsequently designated C. foveicollis as the type species of Cyphogastra in 1998.[3]
The species has accumulated numerous synonyms over its taxonomic history, reflecting the difficulty of delimiting species in this morphologically variable genus. These include C. pisciformis Deyrolle, 1864, C. geelwinkiana Gestro, 1877, C. flavitarsis Gestro, 1877, C. ronensis Lansberge, 1880, C. pygmaea Kerremans, 1903, C. aurifossa Obenberger, 1922, and C. bipartita Théry, 1923.[6]
The genus Cyphogastra belongs to the subtribe Chalcophorina within the tribe Chrysochroini.[7] It comprises three subgenera: Cyphogastra s.str., Guamia Théry, 1930, and Pleiona Deyrolle, 1864.[6] The genus name derives from the Greek kyphos (κυφός, "hump" or "convex") and gaster (γαστήρ, "belly"), referring to the convex abdominal profile characteristic of the group.[5] Hołyński has published an ongoing multi-part revision of the Cyphogastra supergenus beginning in 2016, organising species into morphologically defined "circles".[8]
Description
Cyphogastra foveicollis reaches approximately 30 millimetres (1.2 in) in length.[4] The body is elongate and robust, typical of the genus. The basic colour of the elytra and thorax is metallic dark green or dark purplish.[4] As in other Buprestidae, this metallic iridescence results from structural coloration rather than pigments; the cuticle contains multilayer reflectors consisting of stacked chitin layers that selectively reflect specific wavelengths of light, producing colours that shift depending on the viewing angle.[9] Multilayer reflectors are the most widespread iridescence mechanism in beetles and are especially prevalent in Buprestidae.[9]
The species epithet foveicollis refers to the pitted or foveate pronotum (from the Latin fovea, "pit", and collis, referring to the neck or collar), a diagnostic character of the genus.[5]