Buprestodera Sicard, 1911

Genus Buprestodera Sicard

Buprestodera Sicard, 1911: 379 .– Korschefsky 1932: 384; Miyatake 1994: 284.

Type species: Buprestodera mimetica Sicard, 1911 , by monotypy.

Diagnosis. Dorsal surface almost glabrous except for head. Terminal maxillary palpomere apically strongly expanded. Elytra with clearly dual punctation, fine punctures intermixed with larger and coarser punctures.Anterior margin of prosternum produced in middle, almost entirely covering mouthparts and antennae when head is retracted. Pronotal hypomera with shallow to distinct foveae near anterolateral corners. Abdominal postcoxal lines complete.

Distribution. Apparently endemic to South India, particularly the Western Ghats and adjoining areas.

Related genera. The systematic position of Buprestodera vis-à-vis other Asian Plotinini , like Plotina and Ballida Mulsant, 1850 , is unclear and problematic. Miyatake (1969) did not deal with Ballida at all but studied Palaeoeneis Crotch, 1874 , considered as a synonym of Ballida by Booth & Pope (1989). He separated Buprestodera from the other genera based on characters such as anterior expansion of prosternum, extent of dilation and apical truncation of the terminal maxillary palpomere. Available illustrations of Palaeoeneis aurantiaca Crotch, 1874 and P. quichauensis Hoàng, 1982 (both species now placed in Ballida and illustrated in Hoàng 1982) indicate Buprestodera is most likely to be a synonym of Ballida . Interestingly, Ballida material at BMNH bear R.G. Booth’s labels indicating this synonymy (as “ Ballida Muls. = Palaeoeneis Crotch , Buprestodera Sicard ”), which appears to be unpublished. Another genus, Eoneda Iablokoff-Khnzorian, 1985 , is also a synonym of Ballida ( Booth & Pope 1989) . Miyatake (1994) included Ballida in his key to the genera of Plotinini .

Included species. Only two species, B. inornata Miyatake and B. mimetica Sicard , are known at present and both are sympatric. A third species distributed in the same geographic range is described and illustrated here.