Bolivia is one of the worlds most entomologically diverse countries, which is indicated by the high species richness of butterflies (Gareca and Reichle 2006), tiger beetles (Pearson et al. 1999) and longhorned beetles (Wappes et al. 2013). However, recent studies suggest that especially the insect fauna of the southern subtropical part of Bolivia is still strongly sampling biased (e.g. Perger and Guerra 2012; Perger and Grossi 2013).

Chrysobothris desmaresti (Laporte & Gory, 1836) and Hiperantha stempelmanni Berg, 1889, are two conspicuous (the former is the largest of its genus) jewel beetle species that have been reported from the area of the Argentinean Chaco but not from Bolivia. H. stempelmanni occurs in the Cordoba, Mendoza, Salta, Santiago del Estero and Tucuman departments (Berg 1889; Bellamy 2008b; Barriga 2009), and C. desmaresti has been recorded in the Salta, Santiago del Estero, Catamarca, Cordoba and Tucuman departments (Kerremans 1892; Bellamy 2008a) as well. Habitat characteristics or host plant associations of both species have not been reported so far. In this short note, host plant associations and records for Bolivia are reported for both species for the first time.

Hiperantha stempelmanni Berg, 1889 (n=15) and Chrysobothris desmaresti (Laporte & Gory, 1836) (n=1) (Fig. 1d) were collected with a beating sheet in trees of Acacia sp. and secondary vegetation in the Salinas Valley, a large alluvial fan that separates two mountain chains of the Southern Bolivian Andes (see material section for data; Fig. 1a, b).

There is no information about the habitat and host plant associations of both species in the literature. The lack of observation in the sub-humid Tucuman-Bolivian forests along the mountain slopes that border the study area (using the same method of sampling, albeit with greater effort, see Perger and Guerra 2013), the previously reported location data and the recorded presence in xeric Acacia trees suggest that both species are endemic to deciduous Chaco lowland forest of Southern Bolivia and North Argentina and may enter adjacent Inter-Andean dry valleys over deciduous vegetation.