  HD 144277 was previously discovered by MOST space photometry to be a young
and hot delta Scuti star showing regular groups of pulsation frequencies. The
first asteroseismic models required lower than solar metallicity to fit the
observed frequency range based on a purely photometric analysis.
High-resolution, high S/N spectroscopic data obtained with the HARPS
spectrograph were used to determine the fundamental parameters and chemical
abundances of HD 144277. These values were put into context alongside the
results from asteroseismic models. The effective temperature, Teff, of HD
144277 was determined as 8640(+300)(-100) K, log g is 4.14 +/- 0.15 and the
projected rotational velocity, vsini, is 62.0 +/- 2.0 km/s. As the vsini value
is significantly larger than previously assumed, we refined the first
asteroseimic model accordingly. The overall metallicity Z was determined to be
0.011 where the light elements He, C, O, Na, and S show solar chemical
composition, but the heavier elements are significantly underabundant. In
addition, the radius of HD 144277 was determined to be 1.55 +/- 0.65 Rsun from
spectral energy distribution fitting, based on photometric data taken from the
literature. From the spectroscopic observations, we could confirm our previous
assumption from asteroseismic models that HD 144277 has less than solar
metallicity. The fundamental parameters derived from asteroseismology, Teff,
log g, L/Lsun and R\Rsun, agree within one sigma to the values found from
spectroscopic analysis. As the vsini value is significantly higher than assumed
in the first analysis, near-degeneracies and rotational mode coupling were
taken into account in the new models. These suggest that HD 144277 has an
equatorial rotational velocity of about 80 km/s and is seen equator-on. The
observed frequencies are identified as prograde modes.
