Serica baoshan 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 baoshan

description: Serica baoshan Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 15E–H, 24
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ China, W Yunnan prov. mts. 20km SW Baoshan, 2400m, 23.-25.v.2006, S. Murzin & Shokin leg./ 1150 Asia Sericini spec. ” (CP). Paratypes: 1 ♂, 1 ♀ “ China, W Yunnan prov. mts. 20km SW Baoshan, 2400m, 23.-25.v.2006, S. Murzin & Shokin leg.” (CP, ZFMK), 1 ♂ “S. China, Yunnan prov. 18 km SW Baoshan, 2100 m, 18.-19.v.2003 leg. S. Murzin ” (CP).
Description of the holotype. Length: 6.9 mm, length of elytra: 4.9 mm, width: 3.5 mm. Body elongate, brown, legs slightly lighter, surface dull, elytra with several slightly darker impunctate spots, and partly iridescent, antenna yellow; dorsal surface densely covered with short, pale setae.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, little wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins convex and convergent towards strongly rounded anterior angles; anterior margin distinctly emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface flat and shiny, finely and densely punctate, with numerous fine erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved; smooth area anterior to eye small, twice as wide as long; ocular canthus short and slender (1/3 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and dense punctures, punctures with moderately dense, adpressed, white, setae and with a few pale long erect ones. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.59. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, 1.3 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight. Mentum strongly elevated anteriorly, convex. Labrum moderately produced along middle, moderately emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide but subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins in basal half straight and subparallel, in anterior half strongly convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles moderately produced and blunt; posterior angles blunt; anterior margin straight, with distinct marginal line; surface irregularly densely and finely punctate, along midline impunctate and glabrous, otherwise with dense, short, white, adpressed setae, on disc with numerous long, pale, erect setae; anterior and lateral margins sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate at base, not produced ventrally. Scutellum large, triangular, finely and very densely punctate, median base impunctate, with very dense, adpressed, short to minute setae in punctures.
Elytra oval, widest at middle, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, moderately dense punctures; punctures with pale, short adpressed setae, on odd intervals with a few singe robust white and erect setae; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical margin membraneous, with a fine rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, with fine, dense, adpressed, pale setae; metacoxa with minute setae in punctures, additionally with a few robust lateral setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.5. Abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise pilosity as in the rest of the ventral surface; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a wide membraneous rim being one quarter as long as sternite. Pygidium moderately convex, dull, dark, finely and densely punctate, with long pale setae margin, otherwise with fine white adpressed pilosity.
Legs slender, shiny, pro- and mesofemur dull; femora 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 serrated and only weakly widened at apex, dorsal posterior margin completely serrated, in basal half with a few long setae which are half as long as metafemur width. Metatibia slender and long, widest shortly before apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/4.3, 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, with a few short longitudinal wrinkles on dorsal portion; ventral margin serrated, with two moderately separated robust setae; medial face glabrous, superficially finely punctate; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, with sparse fine punctures dorsally. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally and dorsally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere as long as following two tarsomeres combined and twice as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin smooth not extended laterally at middle; protarsal claws asymmetric, basal tooth of interior claw widened and bluntly truncate at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 15E–G. Habitus: Fig. 15H.
Diagnosis. Serica baoshan Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from the similar Serica inaequalis Ahrens, 2007 by the dorsoventrally more flattened apical phallobase (lateral view), the more narrow left paramere, and the right paramere which is only before the apex bluntly extended to a lateral tooth (rather than at middle as in S. inaequalis).
Etymology. The new species is named (noun in apposition) after its type locality, Baoshan.
Variation. Length: 6.1–6.9 mm, length of elytra: 4.2–4.9 mm, width: 3.4–3.5 mm. Female: Antennal club little shorter than remaining antennomeres combined, pygidium weakly convex, eyes as large as in male.
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 60-61, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769