Cyphochilus sansuukyii Sabatinelli 2020, n. sp.
Creators: name: Sabatinelli, Guido
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Cyphochilus
Cyphochilus sansuukyii

description: Cyphochilus sansuukyii n. sp.
Figs 44-46, 88
Holotype: MHNG (MHNG-ENTO-81690); 1 ♂; MYANMAR: // Carin Chebà [Karen Hills] / 900- 1100 m / L. Fea V XII-88 [1888] (P) // HOLOTYPUS ♂ / Cyphochilus / sansuukyii mihi / G. Sabatinelli, 2020 (T on red) // (Fig. 88).
Paratypes: 2 specimens.
MYANMAR: MHNG (MHNG-ENTO-81691 and 81692); 2 ♀; same collection data as the holotype, labeled as PARATYPUS ♀.
Description of the holotype male: Size – BL: 22 mm, BW: 8.8 mm, BWX: 12.3 mm, situated in the third distal of elytra. Color – Integument brown including antennal clubs and legs; dorsal surface with yellowish scales, more dense white scales along sides of pronotum and margins. Head – CW/L: 2.9; anterolateral edges of clypeus rounded in very obtuse angle, lateral edges of clypeus straight and divergent posteriad; frons large, making eyes not prominent (F/O: 5.7); antennal club of same length as antennomeres 2-7 (A2-7/CL: 1). Pronotum – Transverse (PnW/L: 2.2), strongly convex; apical angles not flattened, right, not protuberant; basal lateral margins almost straight, basal angles obtuse and rounded. Elytra – Without elevated striae. Thoracic sterna – Surface with short, white pubescence and scales; mesosternum well developed anteriorly (MstL: 1.1 mm) between mesocoxae. Abdomen – Sternites with sparse scales; pygidium convex with apical margin reflected. Legs – Protibia bidentate as third tooth at the base is obsolete; slender apical tooth bigger than the other tooth. Aedeagus – Parameres very asymmetric; apex of both parameres prolonged in a spike (Figs 44-46).
Females: BL: 23.5 mm; antennal club shorter than preceding antennomeres (A2-7/CL: 1.7).
Etymology: Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and recipient of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her democratic activities in Myanmar, from where the new species of Cyphochilus is described.
Type locality: The type locality, Carin Chebà on the original labels, corresponds nowadays to Karen Hills (750 m), in Myanmar. Leonardo Fea (Turin 24 July 1852 – 27 April 1903), who in 1872 was an assistant at the Museum of Natural History in Genoa, collected the three specimens here described. He undertook several scientific expeditions including to Burma where he spent four years (1885-1889) accumulating large collections of insects and birds most of which are in the MSNG but also present in MNHN, ISNB, and MHNG.
Distribution: The species is known only from Karen Hills in Myanmar, one of the main hill ranges in eastern Burma located across the SW corner of Shan State and Kayah State.
Remarks: Cyphochilus sansuukyii is morphologically close to C. flavomarginatus: they are large species having smooth elytra which have with their maximum width distally and a yellowish or white band of scales around the sides of the body from the head to the apex of elytra. Cyphochilus sansuukyii is easily recognizable from C. flavomarginatus by having the antennal club of male of the same length as antennomeres 2-7 and by the different shape of parameres (Figs 44-46 vs. 41-43).
description: Published as part of Sabatinelli, Guido, 2020, Taxonomic notes on the genus Cyphochilus Waterhouse, 1867 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea, Melolonthinae) with description of 10 new species, pp. 157-181 in Revue suisse de Zoologie 127 (1) on page 166, DOI: 10.35929/RSZ.0014, http://zenodo.org/record/5743429