Serica shengtangshan 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 shengtangshan

description: Serica shengtangshan Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 11A–D, 24
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Mts. Shengtangshan, Jinxiu, Guangxi, 18.V.1999, 1970m, leg. Gao Mingyuan/ LW-157/ 1145 Asia Sericini spec. ” (IZAS).
Description of the holotype. Length: 8.4 mm, length of elytra: 6.1 mm, width: 4.2 mm. Body elongate, dark brown, dull, partly with greenish toment, legs reddish brown, elytra yellow brown with dark spots, in punctures lighter, antenna yellow; dorsal surface almost glabrous except a single and short, white adpressed setae on pronotum and elytra.
Labroclypeus subrectangular, little wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins straight and subparallel, anterior angles moderately convex; anterior margin widely and distinctly emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface flat and moderately shiny, finely and densely punctate, glabrous; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved and slightly elevated; smooth area anterior to eye small and convex, 1.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and slender (1/4 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and dense punctures, with a few fine and long setae beside eyes and numerous short erect ones on disc. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.54. Antenna with 9 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, 1.7 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and moderately reflexed. Mentum strongly elevated anteriorly, convex. Labrum moderately produced along middle, distinctly emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide but subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins evenly convex and strongly convergent anteriorly; anterior angles moderately produced and sharply pointed; posterior angles strongly rounded; anterior margin straight, with robust but indistinct marginal line; surface densely and finely punctate, along midline narrowly impunctate in basal half, with minute, pale, adpressed setae in punctures, on sides with a few short setae; anterior and lateral margins sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate at base, not produced ventrally. Scutellum moderately large, triangular, finely and densely punctate, on midline impunctate, with minute setae in punctures.
Elytra oval, widest at posterior third, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, sparse punctures; with a few single, fine, short, white, adpressed setae on all intervals; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical margin narrowly membraneous, with a fine rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, densely setose; metacoxa glabrous, except a few short lateral setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.29. Abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise glabrous except on the ultimate sternite being finely shortly setose; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a wide membraneous rim being one quarter as long as sternite. Pygidium moderately convex and dull, dark, finely and densely punctate, smooth midline narrow, with sparse, moderately long setae.
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: 1/4.7, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at one third, apical group at two thirds of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; external face sparsely and finely punctate, with a few superficial longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with two widely separated robust setae; medial face glabrous and impunctate; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally smooth. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally and dorsally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and twice as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin smooth but bluntly extended at middle; anterior claws asymmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw widened and concavely truncate at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 11A–C. Habitus: Fig. 11D. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica shengtangshan Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from the similar S. albisetis Ahrens, 2005 by the left paramere having its dorsomedial tooth at basal third (not shortly before the apex as in S. albisetis).
Etymology. The species is named (noun in apposition) after its type locality, Mts. Shengtangshan.
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 45-46, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769