Lophalia prolata Chemsak and Linsley, 1988

(Fig. 79–88)

Lophalia prolata Chemsak and Linsley 1988: 127; Chemsak et al. 1992: 84 (cat.); Chemsak and Noguera 1993: 63 (dist.); Monné and Giesbert 1994: 146 (cat.); Monné 1994: 34 (cat.); Noguera and Chemsak 1996: 402 (dist.); Noguera et al. 2002: 624 (dist.); Zaragoza-Caballero and Pérez-Hernández 2017: 34 (holotype)

Materials examined. MEXICO: Jalisco: 5.2 km S El Tuito, HWY 200, 25 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (1 female, BKEC); 5.8 km S El Tuito, HWY200, 12 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (4 males, 1 female, BKEC); 6.9 km S. El Tuito, HWY200, 13 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (9 males, 4 females, BKEC); 13.8 km S El Tuito, HWY200, 31 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (8 males, 1 female, BKEC); Estación de Biología Chamela, 23 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (2 males, BKEC); 8 km N Melaque Jct. HWY200, 22 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (4 males, 1 female, BKEC); 8 km N Melaque Jct. HWY200, 14 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (3 males, 1 female, BKEC); 8 km NW Melaque, 16–23 Oct. 1986, J.A. Chemsak (paratypes: 1 male, 1 female, BKEC); 35.9 km NE Melaque, Jct., HWY80, 29 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (8 males, 2 females, BKEC); 4.8 km S La Huerta, HWY80, 15 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (4 males, 3 females, BKEC); 4.8 km S La Huerta, HWY80, 24 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (1 females, BKEC); 25.1 km S La Huerta, HWY80, 15 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (1 female, BKEC); Microondas Puerto Los Mazos, Sierra de Manantlán, 15 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (1 male, BKEC); 21.6 km N St. Gabriel, Jct. 80/432, 28 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (3 males, 2 females, BKEC); 3.1 km NE San Gabriel, HWY432, 17 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (5 males, 2 females, BKEC); Planta La Mesa, 13.8 km NE San Gabriel, HWY432, 18 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (1 male, BKEC); Planta La Mesa, 22.7 km N Jct. HWY432, 28 Oct. 1995, B.K. Eya (1 male, 1 female, BKEC); Chapala, 1500 m, 9/ 10 Oct. 1996, G. Noguiera, (1 female, BKEC). Sinaloa: 30 km W El Palmito, 2–9 Oct. 1976, E. Giesbert (3 males, 1 female, FSCA).

Discussion. According to Chemsak and Linsley (1988: 127–128), this species is moderate in size (12–19 mm), elongate, and slightly tapered posteriorly with “integument shining black.” “Head and prothorax are dark metallic greenish, and each elytron is provided with a narrow, glabrous, slightly elevated, longitudinal, yellowish vitta.” The front is short, and each side of middle above postclypeus is “a deep, transverse pit.” The vertex is finely, sparsely punctate, and glabrous in the middle between eyes. The antennae are “slender extending about two segments beyond elytra” in males and “slightly longer than body” in females with basal antennomeres II–V shining and outer antennomeres VI–XI opaque. The antennae are vaguely carinate on the outer surface of antennomeres IV–VIII, and on the inner surface of V–VIII. The “pronotum is slightly broader than long, sides broadly rounded,” and “disc shining, sparsely punctate, and medially glabrous” with “pubescence sparse and short.” The mesosternal “intercoxal process is strongly produced between coxae.” The “elytra are almost three times as long as broad” with “apices sinuate-truncate and outer angles strongly dentate.” The scutellum is “glabrous, elongate, acute, and narrowed posteriorly.”

Lophalia prolata Chemsak and Linsley has a front of the head that is convex and subvertical with deep transverse pits on each side above the postclypeus (Chemsak and Linsley 1988: 129). The mid-cranial sulcus is narrow and vague extending arcuately from postclypeus over to the posterior margin of antennal tubercles. The sparsely punctate, metallic colored head and pronotum, and “elongate body form” combined with “the single vitta on each elytron will differentiate L. prolata from other species” in this genus. The species name “prolata ” is Latin for “extended” referring to the elongate body form of this species (WordSense 2024).