(Fig. 1)

Male: General colour dark chestnut, with bronzy reflection on head and scape; underside, elytra and base of tibiae paler, procoxae palest. General pubescence very short, recumbent, whitish on pronotum and underside; longer on legs, especially femora, and urosternites; elytral pubescence characteristic, the rows of normal pubescence replaced by patches of squamous glistening hairs. Ratio of longest setae to scape 5:6. General puncturation dense and small, contiguous on pronotum; elytra with irregular rows of medium sized punctures, interstices finely reticulate (40x); underside, including metasternum and urosternites with fine reticulate punctures (40x).

Head below and behind inferior lobes distinctly tumescent; frons with mixture of large (20x) and very small (40x) punctures; eyes convex; superior lobes with 4-5 ommatidia/row, relatively wide and separated by 1,5 times their own width. Antennae reach apex of elytra at base of antennomere X; scape (0,65 mm) broad and cylindrical, III (0,55 mm) distinctly shorter than IV (0,80 mm) and protibia (1,0 mm), V-VIII (0,55- 0,5 mm) subequal, IX-XI (0,45 mm) slightly shorter.

Prothorax slightly transverse; front wider than hind margin; sides straight, almost parallel from lateral tubercle to front margin, strongly constricted behind, with setose micro-tubercle just behind lateral tubercle; the latter prominent, occupying middle third, surmounted by long, straight, backwardly directed spine situated just in front of basal third. Pronotum: disc occupied by rounded, raised area; surface reticulate with short, indistinct, recumbent pubescence and small, dense punctures, these rounded or transverse.

Elytra parallel sided, somewhat depressed for basal half, with broad, raised, almost glabrous area around scutellum, and apical half convex; a large patch of squamous hairs running from behind humeri obliquely towards suture and more than twenty smaller patches scattered as far as apex of each elytron; elytral puncturation confused with about ten indefinite rows of punctures interspersed with short rows of intermediate punctures, the punctures becoming smaller, and those of innermost rows evanescent, on apical third.

Legs projecting, femora strongly pedunculate and clavate, claves long, peduncles 1/4 length of femur, those of metafemora slightly longer, metafemora with conspicuous apical patch dorso-laterally; metatibia enlarged, almost parallel sided, slightly widened to apex, the lateral surface with an elliptical patch of white pubescence delimited, as on metafemur, by a fine sulcus; metatarsus 1/4 shorter than metatibia (1,1 mm).

Urosternite V as long as IV, slightly convex and without depressions.

Sexual dimorphism: Female: strongly tumescent on vertex; superior lobes slightly narrower and wider apart, separated by about twice their own width; antennae reach apex of elytra at base of antennomere XI; elytra may be widened posteriorly; femora distinctly less tumid, and metafemoral patch less developed; metatibia not enlarged, and patch of white pubescence reduced; urosternite V long, slightly shorter than II-IV, with rounded depression from basal third to near apex, where it is deepest.

Variation: elytra may have ill-defined, oblique, rufous fascia running from humeri to apex; prothorax may be slightly constricted just behind front margin, disc may be strongly convex, and lateral spines distinctly curved, and shorter.

Measurements (mm): 4 males / 7 females respectively: total length 3,9-4,8/4,0-4,9; width of pronotum 1,0-1,3/1,1-1,3; length of pronotum 0,8-1,0/0.8-1,0; length of elytra 2,8-3,3/2,8-3,5; width at humeri 1,4-1,7/1,4-1,8.

Holotype: male, BOLIVIA, Chuquisaca, 20°36’S / 63°17’W, c. 500 m, 21 km N Machereti, 11.I.2005, R. Clarke / P. Koch col., beaten from semi-dry Acacia branches (MNKM). Paratypes with same data as holotype: 1 male and 1 female (FSCA); 1 female (MCNZ). Paratypes from other localities: BOLIVIA, Santa Cruz, 21°18’S / 63°30’W, c. 600 m, 7 km WSW Villamontes, 1 female, 19.I.2006 (MNRJ). BOLIVIA, Santa Cruz, 18°09’S / 63°48’W, c. 1300 m, Achira, 25.XI.2004, R. Clarke / S. Zamalloa col., beaten from dry trees: 1 male (MNRJ); 1 male and 2 females (MZSP); 1 male and 1 female (RCSZ).

Discussion: Group 1 species. The patches of glistening squamous pubescence on the elytra will readily separate M. lepidotus from other species of the genus.

Etymology: Greek, lepis = scale, referring to the squamous hairs on elytra.