Melolontha furcicauda Ancey 1881
Creators: name: Gupta, Devanshu
name: Keith, Denis
name: Bhunia, Debika
name: Das, Priyanka
name: Ghosh, Joyjit
name: Chandra, Kailash
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Melolontha
Melolontha furcicauda

description: Melolontha furcicauda Ancey, 1881
(Figs. 12, 24, 52, 64)
Melolontha furcicauda Ancey 1881: 412 (type locality: Ladak, Thibet); Nonfried 1892: 286 (checklist); Dalla Torre 1912: 268 (catalogue); Arrow 1921: 13 (distribution); Mittal 1981: 35 – 40 (distribution); Mittal 2000: 266 (checklist); Bezdĕk 2006: 195 (catalogue); Chandra & Uniyal 2007: 2821 (distribution); Sood et al. 2009: 370 – 376 (distribution); Kumar et al. 2005: 15 – 20 (distribution, host record); Kumar et al. 2007: 103 – 109 (distribution); Keith & Saltin 2012: 21, pl. 5A–J, 7A–I, 8A–J, pl. 9, 10 (illustration of type material); Krajčík 2012: 158 (checklist); Singh & Banyal 2013: 1059 (distribution); Roy et al. 2014: 13 (host); Pathania et al. 2015a: 53 (distribution); Pathania et al. 2015b: 131 (distribution); Feroz et al. 2015: 175, figs. 2a – d (distribution); Bezdĕk 2016: 231 (catalogue); Lal & Sharma 2017: 447 – 452 (distribution); Kumar et al. 2018: 534 (distribution); Ghosh et al. 2020: 249 (checklist); Rana et al. 2022a: 281–305 (description of grubs and adults); Rana et al. 2022b: 71–82.
Hoplosternus furcicauda: Dalla & Torre 1912: 264 (catalogue); Sabatinelli 1992: 613 (catalogue); Zhang 1988: 244 (new record, description).
Hoplosternus bifurcatus Brenske 1896a: 164 (type locality: Kashmir, Nepal); Barlow 1899: 269 (N – E Frontier); Dalla Torre 1912: 264 (catalogue); Sabatinelli 1992: 613 (catalogue); Li et al. 2010: 345 (as a junior synonym of M. furcicauda).
Melolontha furcienanda: Li et al. 2010: 345 (checklist, misspelling).
Hoplosternus furcicandus Brenske 1896a: 163 (description, misspelling); Barlow 1899: 270 (misspelling).
Melolontha insignis Semenov 1890: 197 (Kundshut, Ljub-dshangal); Fairmaire 1891: LXXXVII (diagnosis); Reitter 1902: 259; Dalla Torre 1912: 270 (catalogue); Bezdĕk 2006: 196 (catalogue); Keith & Saltin 2012: 22, pl. 6 (habitus, holotype male, aedeagus) (as a junior synonym of M. furcicauda).
Hoplosternus insignis: Dalla Torre 1912: 264 (catalogue); Balthasar 1936: 205 (distribution); Medvedev 1951: 115 (description); Sabatinelli 1992: 613 (catalogue).
Material examined. India, Himachal Pradesh: Great Himalayan National Park, Dhagra, 17.v.1996, 2 exs., leg. V.P. Uniyal [NZSI]; Solan, 30.vi.1968, 1♁, leg. O.B. Chhotani; Kulu Manali, 03.vii.1956, 1♀, leg. M.S. Mani; Chamba, Kalatop Khajjiar Wildelife Snctuary, Pithoragorh, Sangolihat, 24.v.2010, 1♀, leg. A.K. Sindhu (NZSI). India, Ladakh: Hunder Forest Guest House, 28.viii.2008, 3♁, 29.viii.2008, 1♀, leg. K. Chandra [NZSI]; Ladakh, Leh, Phey, 18.viii.2019, 10♀, leg. A.K. Sidhu (NZSI). India, Uttarakhand: Bageshwar, 30.ix.2004, 1♁, 1♀, leg. D.R. Moulik (NZSI); Bageshwar, Chanoda, 29.viii.2005, 1♀, leg. S.K. Chatterjee (NZSI); Nainital, 06.ix.2005, 3♁, leg. S.K. Chhatterjee (NZSI); Nainital, Shila Lake, 07.viii.2004, 1♁, leg. M. Ghosh (NZSI); Nainital, Naukoshiya, 05.viii.2004, 1♀, leg. M. Ghosh (NZSI); Nainital, Bhowali, 08.ix.2005, 4♁, leg. S.K. Chatterjee; Dehradun, Balowgunj, 14.viii.1965, 2♁, leg. R.K. Bhatnagar (NZSI); Pithoragarh, Gangolihat, 05.ix.2005, 2♀, leg. S.K. Chatterjee; Almora, near Almorah Circuit House, 11.ix.2002, 1♁, leg. P.H. Roy (NZSI); Garhwal, Dhakwani, 14.viii.1958, 1♀, leg. B.S. Lamba (NZSI).
Diagnosis. Refer to species key.
Distribution. India: Haryana (Mittal 1981), Himachal Pradesh (Mittal 2000; Chandra & Uniyal 2007; Sood et al. 2009; Kumar et al. 2005; Kumar et al. 2007; Singh & Banyal 2013; Pathania et al. 2015a, 2015b; Rana et al. 2022 a, 2022b), Jammu and Kashmir (Brenske 1896a; Barlow 1899; Kumar et al. 2018), Ladakh (Ancey 1881; Arrow 1921; Feroz et al. 2015), Sikkim (Barlow 1899), Uttarakhand (Lal & Sharma 2017), and West Bengal (Darjeeling) (Barlow 1899); Afghanistan (Bezdĕk 2016), Bangladesh, China (Zhang 1988), Nepal (Brenske 1896a), Pakistan (Keith & Saltin 2012), and Tajikistan (Bezdĕk 2016).
Host records. Melolontha furcicauda cause variable extents of damage to maize crop and infests upland paddy, tea plantations and conifers (Kumar et al. 2005).
description: Published as part of Gupta, Devanshu, Keith, Denis, Bhunia, Debika, Das, Priyanka, Ghosh, Joyjit & Chandra, Kailash, 2023, Review of Melolontha Fabricius, 1775 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from India with the description of two new species, pp. 191-216 in Zootaxa 5263 (2) on page 213, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5263.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/7800978