Maladera onam Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gupta, Devanshu
name: Bhunia, Debika
name: Ahrens, Dirk
name: Chandra, Kailash
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Maladera
Maladera onam

description: Maladera onam Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra, sp. nov.
(Fig. 2I–L)
Type locality. India, Kerala, Valiyaparamba, Silent valley, 12.15N, 75.142E.
Type material. Holotype, ♂: “ India, Kerala, Valiyaparamba, Silent Valley, 12.150 N, 75.142E, 23.i.1980, leg. S.K. Bhattacharya ” (NZCI). The holotype specimen bears additionally a red printed label with the following text: “ Maladera onam sp. nov., HOLOTYPE, Devanshu Gupta, Debika Bhunia, Dirk Ahrens & Kailash Chandra, Det. 2024”.
Description of the holotype. Length: 9.5 mm, elytral length: 7.3 mm, width: 6.7 mm.
Body oval, uniformly dark reddish brown, dorsal and ventral face dull, except lateral setae of elytra and pronotum nearly glabrous.
Head. Labroclypeus wide, trapezoidal, widest at base and moderately shiny, lateral margins weakly convex and convergent anteriorly, producing a distinct blunt angle with ocular canthus, not incised before labrum, anterior angles moderately convex, anterior margin weakly emarginate medially, margins weakly reflexed; surface convex, finely and densely punctate, with a few fine erect setae behind anterior margin. Frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved. Smooth area in front of eyes 1.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and wide, finely and densely punctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons finely and densely punctate, with a few single and short setae beside eyes. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.67. Antenna with ten antennomeres, club with three antennomeres, slightly shorter than remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum convexly elevated, anteriorly slightly flattened.
Pronotum widest at base, lateral margins evenly and convexly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles moderately sharp, distinctly produced, posterior angles blunt, slightly rounded at tip; anterior margin with complete marginal line, straight; lateral and lateral anterior margin with long and fine setae; surface finely and densely punctate, with microscopic setae in punctures, otherwise glabrous. Scutellum wide, triangular, punctures fine and moderately dense, glabrous.
Elytra wide, widest at middle, external apical angle strongly rounded, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate, even intervals nearly flat, finely and moderately densely punctate, odd intervals slightly convex, with punctures concentrated along striae, with only microscopic setae in punctures; epipleural edge ending at external apical angle of elytra; epipleura with long and sparse setae; apical margin with a rim of fine microtrichomes.
Ventral surface coarsely and densely punctate, with microscopic setae in punctures, with a few longer setae on mesosternum and metasternal plate. Mesosternum between mesocoxae 1.5 times as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.78. Metacoxa glabrous, laterally with a few robust setae.Abdominal sternites finely and moderately densely punctate, with a transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a robust seta, penultimate sternite with a very narrow shiny chitinous rim. Pygidium dull, weakly convex, finely and moderately densely punctate, with narrow impunctate median line, glabrous.
Legs moderately wide; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae. Metafemur dull, superficially punctate, anterior edge acute, without adjacent serrated line, anterior and posterior row of setae absent; posterior ventral marginal most straight, strongly widened in apical half, neither ventrally nor dorsally serrated but smooth, glabrous. Metatibia wide and short, widest at middle, ratio width/length: 1/2.3, sharply carinate dorsally, with two groups of spines, basal one at middle, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length, in basal third with 3–4 coarse punctures each bearing a fine seta; lateral face weakly longitudinally convex, impunctate, only ventral part with moderately dense and coarse punctures; ventral margin with four equidistant spines; medial face impunctate and glabrous, apex shallowly emarginate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally, circular in cross section, with sparse, fine setae ventrally; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated carina, subventrally with a second, smooth longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere distinctly shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and slightly longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, teeth moderately large. All claws symmetrical, feebly curved and long, with normally developed basal tooth.
Aedeagus: Fig. 2I–K. Habitus: Fig. 2L.
Female unknown.
Distribution. Species only known from the type locality.
Diagnosis. Maladera onam sp. nov. is in its external characters and in the shape of the aedeagus rather similar to Maladera trochaloides Ahrens & Fabrizi, 2016. Maladera onam sp. nov. differs from M. trochaloides by the right paramere which is strongly curved outward having a large internal lobe; its apex is finely setose, while in M. trochaloides it is a glabrous (Ahrens & Fabrizi 2016; fig. 24R–T, p. 312).
Etymology. Maladera onam sp. nov. is named after a famous festival of Kerala (noun in apposition).
description: Published as part of Gupta, Devanshu, Bhunia, Debika, Ahrens, Dirk & Chandra, Kailash, 2025, New species and records of Sericinae from India and Nepal (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), pp. 371-385 in Zootaxa 5613 (2) on pages 379-380, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5613.2.11, http://zenodo.org/record/15216371