Metachroma clarkei Blake 1970

Metachroma clarkei

DESCRIPTION.—Between 4.5 and 5.0 mm in length, oblong oval, lustrous yellowish or reddish brown with a piceous spot on occiput, four spots across pronotum, occasionally combined into two large ones, and a dark sutural vitta widening below scutellum, a dark spot on humerus and below and two submarginal spots and one below middle, all these dark markings variable in extent; pronotum very finely punctate, striate punctures on elytra coarse (especially in transverse depression) and visible to apex.

Head with interocular space less than half width of head, shining reddish brown with a piceous median plaga from occiput down front almost to clypeus, occiput punctate, a median depression on front, a faint transverse line separating front from clypeus, clypeus more coarsely punctate, anterior margin only slightly curved, sometimes nearly straight over labrum, jaws piceous. Antennae extending below humeri, distal joints darker. Prothorax large, almost as wide as elytra, about a third wider than long, not very convex, with well-rounded sides and small tooth at each angle, lustrous, very inconspicuously punctate in some specimens, never coarsely or very densely punctate, reddish brown with four piceous spots across, sometimes combined to make a single large spot on each side, margins dark. Scutellum dark. Elytra lustrous, about 2.5 times length of prothorax, with well-marked intrahumeral sulcus and transverse depression in which striate punctures are coarser, punctures visible to apex, on sides intervals faintly costate; markings, as described above, variable, especially in width of sutural dark areas, margins dark. Body beneath deep reddish brown to piceous with legs paler. Femora with minute tooth; claws with long tooth. Length, 4.5–5.0 mm; width, 2.3–2.5 mm.

TYPE.—Male, USNM 70695, with five paratypes.

TYPE-LOCALITY.—Cozumel, Yucatan Peninsula, Espirito Santo Bay, Mexico (6 April 1960; J. F. G. Clarke, collector).