Brachyleptura vexatrix (Mannerheim, 1853)

Brachysomida vexatrix (Mannerheim, 1853:250)
    Toxoleptura Miroshnikov, 1998:411
           quadrillum LeConte, 1859:88
           convolvens Casey, 1913:250

B. vexatrix is a diurnal, flower-visiting lepturine ranging throughout the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to the Sierra Nevadas of California. The host plant for this species is unknown. 

​Diagnosis. vexatrix can be distinguished from the other Pacific Northwestern species by its antennae, which are narrower and are not serrate or sub-serrate. The the inner angles of the elytral apices are acute in vexatrix. North of the Siskiyous, the elytra of this species are generally almost entirely black, and occasionally bear yellow spots laterally. From Northern California southward into the Sierra Nevadas the elytra become more prominently yellow with black spots. 

Taxonomic History
The species was originally described by Mannerheim (1853) as Pachyta vexatrix and later placed in the genus Brachyleptura by Linsley and Chemsak (1976). The holotype of vexatrix was taken from the Kenai peninsula of Alaska. There are presently two available junior synonyms: LeConte (1859) described Leptura quadrillum from Fort Tejon, in southern California. Casey (1913: 249) placed quadrillum in the genus Judolia and also described Judolia convolvens from the California siskiyou mountain range. This latter species was separated from quadrillum on the basis of its elytral coloration, and several indiscrete characters of the pronotum, elytra, and tibiae. Casey rejected the notion that either quadrillum or his new species could be the same as Mannerhiem's vexatrix​.  However, Linsley and Chemsak (1976), who doubtless had access to a much larger base of specimens, found both LeConte's and Casey's populations to be members of a large cline--a single species vexatrix extending over the entire west coast of North America.  To date however, no analysis of the species has taken into account either internal morphology or molecular evidence. 

Miroshnikov (1998) proposed that B. vexatrix and B. pernigra  be separated as a new genus Toxoleptura, but this genus has not been accepted by North American taxonomists.

Type Specimens
Casey's convolvens type is held at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. 

References

1. Casey, T. L. 1913. Further studies amongst the American Longicornia. Memoirs on the Coleoptera, 4:193-388.
2. LeConte, J. L. 1859. Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Fort Tejon, California. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 11:69-90.
3. Linsley, E.G. and J.A. Chemsak. 1976. Cerambycidae of North America. Part VI, No.2. Taxonomy and Classification of the Subfamily Lepturinae. University of California Publications in Entomology 80, 186 pp.
4. Mannerheim, C. G. von. 1853. Dritter Nachtrag zur Käfer-Fauna der Nord-Amerikanischen Länder des Russischen Reiches. Bull. Soc. Imp. Natur. Moscou, 26(2):96-273.
5. Miroshnikov, A. I., 1998: A new classification of longicorn beetles of the Anoplodera complex, tribe Lepturini Coleoptera, Cerambycidae of Holarctic fauna. I. Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 77(2): 384-420.  [English Translation: Entomological Reivew, Vol. 78, No. 4, 1998, pp. 437--465.]