Maladera spissigrada
Creators: name: Fabrizi, Silvia
name: Liu, Wan-Gang
name: Bai, Ming
name: Yang, Xing-Ke
name: Ahrens, Dirk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Maladera
Maladera spissigrada

description: Maladera spissigrada (Brenske, 1897)
Figures 1 I–L, 83
Serica spissigrada Brenske, 1897: 430; Sawada 1937: Plate IV, Figure 4; Niijima & Kinoshita 1923: 23; Murayama 1938: 12, 1954: 40.
Maladera spissigrada: Nakane & Baba 1960: 5; Nomura 1963: 124; Kalinina 1989: 419; Ahrens 2007b: 21.
Maladera kurentzovi Kalinina, 1978: 45, syn by: Nikolaev 1982: 286; Kalinina 1989: 419.
Serica nakayamai Murayama, 1938: 16; Murayama 1954: 57; Nomura 1967: 52, syn. n.
Additional material examined. Russia: 1 ♂ “Ussurisk Sibir. Or.” (ZFMK), 1 ♂ “ Sutschan Ussuri ” (ZFMK), 3 ♂♂ “ Ikenobe, Hirai-cho, Kita-gun, Kagawa Pref., Shikoku, Japan, 20.4.1950 leg. M. Chujo ” (DEIC), 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀ “SE Siberia Amurland near Olutshje 10.VII.1995 ” (ZFMK), 1 ♂ “SU-SE (Primor’e) ca. 50km SWW Vladivostok Bamburovo vill. 01.08.1990 Lg. A. Napolov ” (CNA), 1 ♂ “ Ussuri Or. Vladivostok ” (ZFMK). China: 1 ♂ “ China: Liaoning Sinica Shifangoding Kuandah county, 5.VI.1997 ” (ZFMK), 1 ♂ “ Hulin, Heilongjiang, 10.VI.1971, leg. Zhang Xuezhong ” (IZAS), 1 ♂ “ Mandchourie, Prov. Kirin, Kao-lin-tze, 17–21.VIII.1939, leg. M. Volkoff ” (IZAS), 1 ♂ “ Hieizan, Kyoto, 5.VIII.1931, leg. K. EKI” (IZAS).
Redescription. Length: 7.4 mm, length of elytra: 5.8 mm, width: 4.6 mm. Body oblong, blackish brown, antenna yellowish, surface dull, labroclypeus and anterior frons shiny, except a few short setae on head and sides of elytra, glabrous.
Labroclypeus wide and subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins convex and convergent anteriorly, anterior angles moderately rounded; anterior margin weakly emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; lateral margin and ocular canthus produce an indistinct angle; surface weakly convex, coarsely, densely punctate, with a few single erect setae on anterior third; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, angled medially; smooth area anterior to eye convex, 2.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and narrow (1/3 of ocular diameter), finely densely punctate, terminal seta present. Frons posteriorly dull, with moderately dense, irregular, fine punctures, with a few single setae beside eyes. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.55. Antenna with ten antennomeres; club with three antennomeres and straight, 1.1 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and slightly flattened anteriorly.
Pronotum narrow, widest at base, lateral margins in basal half straight and subparallel, in anterior half moderately evenly convex, moderately convergent anteriorly, anterior angles distinctly produced and sharp, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin weakly convex, with fine marginal line being medially widely interrupted, base without marginal line; surface finely and densely punctate, with minute setae in punctures; anterior and lateral margin finely setose; hypomeron carinate, not produced ventrally. Scutellum wide, triangular, with fine and dense punctures.
Elytra widest at posterior third, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals flat, with fine, moderately dense punctures, odd intervals with a few single short, erect setae, otherwise with minute setae in punctures; epipleural margin robust, ending at convex external apical angle of elytra, epipleura sparsely setose; apical border of elytra membraneous, with a fine rim of microtrichomes (visible at ca 100x magnification).
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, with dense and fine, adpressed setae, metasternal disc sparsely covered with longer setae; metacoxa with a few longer setae laterally. Abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate, glabrous, each sternite with a transverse row of punctures each bearing a fine seta. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.49. Pygidium weakly convex, dull, finely and densely punctate, without smooth midline, with short setae throughout and a few long setae along apical margin.
Legs moderately long and wide; femora shiny, with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate. Anterior margin of metafemur acute, with adjacent serrated line; posterior ventral margin smooth, not widened at apex, dorsal posterior margin smooth, neither serrate, glabrous. Metatibia long and moderately wide, widest at middle, ratio of width/length: 1/3.79, sharply carinate dorsally, with two groups of spines, basal group shortly behind middle, apical group at four fifths of metatibial length, in basal half with a serrated line beside dorsal margin and few short single spines close to dorsal margin; lateral face longitudinally convex, finely sparsely punctate, glabrous; ventral margin finely serrate, with three robust setae of which the distal one is more distant; medial face smooth and glabrous; apex finely serrate, shallowly emarginate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres dorsally impunctate, glabrous, neither laterally nor dorsally carinate, moderately setose ventrally; metatarsomeres glabrous and with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally and a smooth subventral longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere slightly longer than following tarsomere and slightly shorter than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of both claws bluntly truncate at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 1 I–K. Habitus: Fig. 1L.
Remarks. Serica nakayamai Murayama, 1938 has been considered a synonym of M. renardi. However, the drawings of Murayama (1938) share with M. spissigrada (Brenske) the median inner lobe of the right paramere, while the fine distal inner branch of the left paramere might have been lost or not recognized. Nikoalev (1982), who obviously had examined type specimens of both taxa, synonymized Maladera kurentzovi Kalinina, 1978 with M. spissigrada. Unfortunately, we were not able to examine any of the type specimens of these species.
Distribution. See map (Fig. 83) and Table 1.
description: Published as part of Fabrizi, Silvia, Liu, Wan-Gang, Bai, Ming, Yang, Xing-Ke & Ahrens, Dirk, 2021, A monograph of the genus Maladera Mulsant & Rey, 1871 of China (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), pp. 1-400 in Zootaxa 4922 (1) on pages 18-19, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4922.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4496316