Maladera karunaratnae Ranasinghe & Eberle & Athukorala & Benjamin & Ahrens 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Ranasinghe, Sasanka
name: Eberle, Jonas
name: Athukorala, Namal
name: Benjamin, Suresh P.
name: Ahrens, Dirk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Maladera
Maladera karunaratnae

description: Maladera karunaratnae sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 2393163E-8310-4991-A992-9E16525ABAF3
Figs 5A–D, 7G, 8F
Diagnosis
Maladera karunaratnae sp. nov. is in external appearance similar to M. anderssoni Fabrizi & Ahrens, 2014 and M. romanoi Fabrizi & Ahrens, 2014, however, the aedeagus has no ventral hook (lateral view), just a distinct ventral convexity at middle.
Etymology
The new species is named after Prof. Inoka Karunaratne (University of Peradeniya), in gratitude for her kind support for this project (noun in the genitive case).
Type material
Holotype SRI LANKA • ♂; “ X-SR1030, Sri Lanka, Matale District, Dambulla, NIFS Arboretum, 7.85796ºN, 80.67554ºE; 181m; 13-X-2019; Eberle, Bohacz & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK.
Paratypes SRI LANKA • 1 ♂; “ X-SR1010, Sri Lanka, Matale District, Dambulla, NIFS Arboretum, 7.85897ºN, 80.67533ºE; 203m; 11-12-X-2019; Eberle, Bohacz & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK • 1 ♂; “ X- SR1087, Sri Lanka, Matale District, Dambulla, NIFS Arboretum, 7.85897ºN, 80.67533ºE; 203m; 11- X-2019; Eberle, Bohacz & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK • 1 ♂; “ X-SR1025, Sri Lanka, Matale District, Dambulla, NIFS Arboretum, 7.85766ºN, 80.67474ºE; 174m; 12-X-2019; Eberle, Bohacz & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK • 1 ♂; “ X-SR1029, Sri Lanka, Matale District, Dambulla, NIFS Arboretum, 7.85766ºN, 80.67474ºE; 174m; 12-X-2019; Eberle, Bohacz & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK • 1 ♂; “ X-SR1113, Sri Lanka, Matale District, Dambulla, NIFS Arboretum, 7.85796ºN, 80.67554ºE; 181m; 13-X-2019; Eberle, Bohacz & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK • 1 ♂; “ X- SR0887, Sri Lanka, Matale District, Riverston, Pitawala Pathana; 7.54976ºN, 80.75212ºE; 902m; 15- X-2019; Eberle, Bohacz & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK • 1 ♀; “ X-SR1088, Sri Lanka, Matale District, Dambulla, NIFS Arboretum, 7.85897ºN, 80.67533ºE; 203m; 11-X-2019; Eberle, Bohacz & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK.
Description
MEASUREMENTS. Length: 5.6 mm, length of elytra: 4.2 mm, width: 3.2 mm.
HABITUS (Fig. 5D) AND COLOURATION. Body oval, brown, antenna, ventral side, and legs yellowish, dorsal surface with iridescent shine, densely shortly setose, elytra with numerous single erect setae.
HEAD. Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and convergent to widely rounded anterior angles, lateral border and ocular canthus producing an blunt angle, margins moderately reflexed; anterior margin weakly emarginate medially; surface shiny, flat, finely and coarsely, densely punctate, with a few erect setae in larger punctures and minute setae in the remaining punctures; frontoclypeal suture finely incised and weakly curved; smooth area in front of eye three times as wide as long; ocular canthus long and narrow, sparsely finely punctate, with a single short terminal seta. Frons with toment and iridescent shine, with fine, dense punctures and short, erect setae in punctures, with a few long, erect setae on disc and beside eyes. Eyes extremely large, ratio of diameter/ interocular width: 1.1. Antenna yellow, with ten antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, straight, 1.2 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and anteriorly flattened.
PRONOTUM. Narrow, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles moderately produced and sharp; anterior marginal line fine and complete, anterior margin weakly produced medially; surface finely and densely punctate, with short erect setae in punctures, and a numerous longer erect setae in anterior part; anterior and lateral borders sparsely setose, basal margin without marginal line; hypomeron ventrobasally carinate and slightly produced ventrally. Scutellum short and wide, triangular, with fine and dense punctures and setae as in pronotum.
ELYTRA. Short oval, widest at middle, striae indistinctly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals flat, with fine, dense punctures, with short setae in punctures; odd intervals with numerous longer, erect setae around which the smaller setae are lacking circularly; epipleural edge fine, ending at the weakly convex external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical border membranous, apex covered with a rim of short microtrichomes.
VENTRAL SURFACE. Moderately shiny, thorax and metacoxa with large and dense punctures, densely shortly setose; metacoxa with numerous long setae laterally; each abdominal sternite, in addition to evenly distributed fine and dense punctures bearing each a fine seta, with a distinct transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a long and more robust seta, penultimate sternite apically with a narrow, shiny smooth chitinous border. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur, with a semicircular ridge bearing robust setae. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/2.28. Pygidium weakly convex, finely densely punctate, with short dense setae, and numerous long setae on apical half.
LEGS. Short and wide; femur with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and densely punctate, densely setose; metafemur shiny, anterior edge acute, lacking an adjacent serrated line, ventral surface densely punctate and setose; posterior ventral margin straight, strongly widened in apical half and very indistinctly serrate apically; posterior dorsal margin not serrated, densely setose. Metatibia short, widest at middle, posteriorly slightly narrowed, ratio width/length: 1/2.4, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal one shortly behind middle, apical one at four fifths of metatibial length, basally beside dorsal margin with two single punctures with serrated margins, each bearing single spines and a longitudinal serrated line in basal half; lateral face longitudinal convex, with dense, fine punctures and with fine white setae in punctures; ventral margin finely serrate, with five strong spines equidistant from each other; medial face smooth, apex interiorly near tarsal articulation shallowly truncate. Meso- and metatarsomeres dorsally densely and finely punctate, and densely setose, ventrally with robust, dense, short setae; metatarsomeres with a strongly serrated ventral ridge, with a strong longitudinal carina beside it; first metatarsomere as long as two following tarsomeres combined and as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate. All claws symmetrical, feebly curved and long, with normally developed basal tooth, protarsal claws asymmetric, basal tooth of inner claw widened and bluntly truncate at apex.
AEDEAGUS. Fig. 5A–C.
Variation
Length: 5.6–6.0 mm, length of elytra: 4.0– 4.5 mm, width: 2.8–3.4 mm.
Female
Length: 7.0 mm, length of elytra: 5.4 mm, width: 3.6 mm. Eyes as large as in male; antennal club little shorter than remaining antennomeres combined.
Distribution
See Fig. 7G.
description: Published as part of Ranasinghe, Sasanka, Eberle, Jonas, Athukorala, Namal, Benjamin, Suresh P. & Ahrens, Dirk, 2022, New species of Sericini from Sri Lanka (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae). Part II, pp. 57-101 in European Journal of Taxonomy 821 (1) on pages 77-79, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.821.1799, http://zenodo.org/record/6595468