Maladera kottagudiensis Chandra, Ahrens, Bhunia, Sreedevi & Gupta 2021, new species
Creators: name: Chandra, Kailash
name: Ahrens, Dirk
name: Bhunia, Debika
name: Sreedevi, Kolla
name: Gupta, Devanshu
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Maladera
Maladera kottagudiensis

description: Maladera kottagudiensis Chandra, Ahrens, Bhunia, Sreedevi & Gupta, new species
(Figs. 9–12)
Type locality. India: Tamil Nadu, Madras, Kottagudi, 10.01664N, 77.48009333E.
Type material. Holotype, male: “ India: Tamil Nadu, Madras, Kottagudi, 10.01664N, 77.48009333E, Alt 2,000– 2,500 ft. 30.xi.1958, leg. F. Sehmid ” (NZSI), Paratypes, two males with the same locality data as for the holotype (NZSI). The specimens bear a red printed label: “ Maladera kaimurensis sp. nov., HOLOTYPE or PARATYPE, Kailash Chandra, Dirk Ahrens, Debika Bhunia, Kolla Sreedevi & Devanshu Gupta, Det. 2020”.
Description (holotype, male).
Body: Length: 10.2 mm, elytral length: 7.9 mm, width: 6.5 mm. Body oval, uniformly reddish-brown, dorsal face dull, except lateral setae of elytra and pronotum nearly glabrous.
Head. Labroclypeus wide, trapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins nearly straight and convergent anteriorly, and producing an indistinct blunt angle with ocular canthus, not incised towards the labrum, anterior angles strongly convex, anterior margin weakly emarginate medially, margins distinctly reflexed; surface not evenly flat, basally narrowly dull, finely and densely punctuate; anterior half with a few erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved; smooth area in front of eyes without any punctures; ocular canthus moderately wide, very finely and sparsely punctate, with a long terminal seta; frons dull, finely and sparsely punctate, with single and longer setae beside eyes, partly with microscopic setae in punctures. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.7; Antennae 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 strongly convexly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles moderately blunt, indistinctly produced, lateral margin immediately beside anterior angles convex, posterior angles blunt, slightly rounded at tip; anterior margin without marginal line at middle, weakly convexly produced medially, laterally with long and fine setae as the lateral margin; surface very finely and moderately densely punctate, with microscopic setae in punctures, otherwise glabrous.
Scutellum wide, triangular, punctures fine and moderately dense, with microscopic setae in punctures. Smooth basal midline,
Elytra oblong wide, widest shortly behind middle, striae finely impressed, finely and moderately densely punctate, intervals nearly flat, finely and moderately densely punctate, odd intervals with punctures concentrated along striae and with a few single short setae, otherwise with only microscopic setae in punctures; epipleural edge ending at external apical angle of elytra; epipleura with long and dense setae; apical margin with a narrow rim of fine microtrichomes.
Ventral surface dull, surface coarsely and densely punctate, with microscopic setae in punctures, with a few longer setae on mesosternum and metasternal plate. Mesosternum between mesocoxae slightly longer than mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.95. Metacoxa laterally with a few robust setae. Abdominal sternites dull, finely and moderately sparsely punctate, with a transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a robust seta, penultimate sternite with a very narrow shiny chitinous rim. Pygidium dull, moderately convex, finely and densely punctate, without median impunctate line, with a few fine longer setae lateral apically, otherwise only with microscopic setae only.
Legs moderately wide; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae. Metafemur dull, few punctures on lateral margin, anterior edge acute, without adjacent serrated line, anterior row of setae reduced to three to four setae close apex; Metatibia moderately wide and moderately long, widest behind middle, ratio of width/length: 1/2.6, basally distinctly narrowed, sharply carinate dorsally, with two groups of spines, basal one shortly before middle, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length, in basal third with a short, partly interrupted serrated line and beside it 3–4 single punctures each bearing a fine seta; lateral face weakly longitudinally convex, with moderately dense and fine punctures, along middle widely impunctate; ventral margin with four equidistant spines; medial face impunctate and glabrous, apex shallowly curved interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally, circular in cross section, with sparse, fine setae ventrally; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated carina; first tarsomeres distinctly shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and equal in length with the dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, teeth moderately large. All claws symmetrical, feebly curved and long, with normally developed basal tooth.
Aedeagus. Figs. 9–11. Habitus. Fig. 12.
Variability. Male paratypes identical to the holotype.
Female unknown.
Etymology. The new species is named after the type locality Kottagudi (adjective in the nominative singular).
Distribution. Only known from the type locality (Fig. 21).
Differential diagnosis. The new species belongs to M. madurensis species group by the presence of following characters: basal appendages more or less wide, not filiform, and body larger (> 8 mm). Maladera kottagudiensis new species is similar to M. bandarwelana Fabrizi & Ahrens, 2014, but can be distinguished by the distinct shape of the parameres (Figs. 9–11).
description: Published as part of Chandra, Kailash, Ahrens, Dirk, Bhunia, Debika, Sreedevi, Kolla & Gupta, Devanshu, 2021, New species and records of Sericini from India (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae Melolonthinae), pp. 492-510 in Zootaxa 4951 (3) on pages 495-497, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4951.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/4668219