Serica pangwa Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu 2022, new species
Creators: name: Ahrens, Dirk
name: Fabrizi, Silvia
name: Bai, Ming
name: Liu, Wangang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Serica
Serica pangwa

description: Serica pangwa Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 9E–H, 24
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Myanmar (Burma) Provinz Kachin State, Pangwa env. (LF) (H= 2450m) 28.IX.2010 N 25°37’42.3 ’’ E 098°23’22.5 ’’ leg. Michael Langer, S. Naumann & S. Löffler / 1108 Asia Sericini spec. ” (ZFMK). Paratype: 1 ♂ “ Myanmar (Burma) Provinz Kachin State, Pangwa env. (LF) (H= 2450m) 28.IX.2010 N 25°37’42.3 ’’ E 098°23’22.5 ’’ leg. Michael Langer, S. Naumann & S. Löffler ” (ZFMK).
Description of the holotype. Length: 7.9 mm, length of elytra: 6.1 mm, width: 4.9 mm. Body elongate eggshaped, yellowish brown, head, pronotum, and scutellum dark brown, dorsal surface except dull frons shiny, partly with greenish shine, elytra with dark brown spots, antenna yellow; dorsal surface almost glabrous except a dense short erect setae on anterior pronotal disc and head.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, little wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and moderately convergent anteriorly, anterior angles moderately rounded; anterior margin distinctly but not deeply emarginate medially; margins weakly reflexed; surface flat and shiny, finely and moderately densely punctate, with a few short erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved; smooth area anterior to eye small and flat, 1.3 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and slender (1/4 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and dense punctures, with sparse, short erect setae. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.5. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, 1.1 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight. Mentum strongly elevated, convex. Labrum moderately produced along middle, moderately emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide and subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins evenly convex and strongly convergent anteriorly; anterior angles distinctly produced and acute; posterior angles strongly rounded; anterior margin with a wide marginal line and weakly produced medially; surface transversely impressed behind anterior margin and at middle resulting in two indistinct transversal sulci on each side of the pronotum, one anterior one posterior; surface irregularly densely and finely punctate, some areas on sulci lacking punctures, on anterior pronotal disc and beside anterior margin with dense short yellow setae partly erect partly bent posteriorly, minute setae in punctures absent; lateral and anterior margins sparsely setose; hypomeron indistinctly carinate at base. Scutellum large, triangular, finely and irregularly sparsely punctate, glabrous.
Elytra oval, widest in posterior third, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, sparse punctures concentrated along striae fusing partly to transverse wrinkles; dark spots impunctate; intervals with a few single, fine, short setae, otherwise glabrous; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical margin very narrowly membraneous, with an extremely fine rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface shiny, finely and densely punctate, almost glabrous, with a few single setae on metasternal disc; metacoxa glabrous, except a few short lateral setae; abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise glabrous and very superficially sparsely punctate, ultimate sternite densely shortly setose; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with membraneous rim a quarter as long as sternite. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.28. Pygidium moderately convex and shiny, yellow with small dark spots, finely and moderately densely punctate, smooth midline narrow, with sparse long setae on apical third.
Legs slender; femora dull, with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate between the rows; metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior edge; ventral posterior margin apically finely serrated and only weakly widened, dorsal posterior margin completely but finely serrated, in basal half with a few long setae which are one third as long as metafemur width. Metatibia slender and long, widest shortly before apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/ 4.2, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group shortly before middle, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; external face sparsely and finely punctate, without longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with two extremely widely separated robust setae; medial face glabrous and smooth; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation concavely truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally smooth. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere little longer than following tarsomere and as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin smooth but bluntly extended at middle; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw bluntly truncate as the external one.
Aedeagus: Fig. 9E–G. Habitus: Fig. 9H. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica pangwa Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from S. jirii Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species by the densly setose pronotal disc, the more transverse pronotum, the more oblong and less convex body, and last not least by the shape of aedeagus. The parameres, particularly the left one, are significantly longer in S. pangwa than in S. jirii.
Etymology. The species is named (noun in apposition) after its type locality Pangwa.
Variation. Length: 7.9–8.0 mm, length of elytra: 6.0– 6.1 mm, width: 4.5–4.9 mm.
description: Published as part of Ahrens, Dirk, Fabrizi, Silvia, Bai, Ming & Liu, Wangang, 2022, Taxonomic revision of Serica MacLeay, 1819 (sensu lato) from China and adjacent areas (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), with updates on Nipponoserica Nomura, 1972, pp. 1-83 in Zootaxa 5186 (1) on pages 41-42, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769