Serica allolongipes 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 allolongipes

description: Serica allolongipes Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 6E–H, 22
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ China, Yunnan prov. Heishui 35km N Lijiang 18.6.- 4.7.1992, 27.13N; 100.19E lgt. S. Becvar / 1135 Sericini: Asia spec.” (ZFMK). Paratypes: 2 ♂♂ “ China, Yunnan prov. Heishui 35km N Lijiang 18.6.- 4.7.1992, 27.13N; 100.19E lgt. S. Becvar ” (CP), 2 ♂♂ “ China, Yunnan prov. Heishui 35km N Lijiang 18.6.- 4.7.1993, 27.13N; 100.19E lgt. S. Becvar ” (ZFMK), 1 ♂ “ Mts. Yulongshan, Lijiang, Yunnan, 28.VI.1962, leg. Song Shimei ” (IZAS).
Description of the holotype. Length: 7.8 mm, elytral length: 6.1 mm, width: 4.1 mm. Body oblong, dark reddish brown, dull, legs brown, antenna yellow, with sparse short and long setae on dorsal surface.
Labroclypeus moderately wide, trapezoidal, lateral margins straight and moderately convergent, producing a distinct angle with ocular canthus; anterior angles strongly rounded; anterior margin moderately sinuate medially, margins strongly reflexed; surface flat, finely and densely punctate, with numerous long and erect setae; frontoclypeal suture indistinct, curved; ocular canthus moderately short and narrow (1/3 of ocular width), finely and densely punctate, with 1–3 short terminal setae. Frons with dull toment, with coarse, dense punctures and a few long setae. Antenna with nine antennomeres, club with three antennomeres, 2.5 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined, strongly reflexed. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.73. Mentum convexly elevated and flattened anteriorly.
Pronotum widest at middle, lateral margins in basal half straight and subparallel, in anterior half convex and convergent anteriorly, only little narrowed towards base; anterior angles almost blunt and weakly produced, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin strongly convex, marginal line complete; basal margin without marginal line; surface with mixed coarse and fine, dense punctures, with a few short and longer erect or forward-directed yellow setae. Hypomeron very weakly carinate ventrally. Scutellum narrow and long, triangular, with fine, dense punctation, at base with a smooth impunctate triangular area, with a very few short setae.
Elytra narrow, elongate, widest in posterior quarter, striae distinctly impressed, finely punctate, intervals weakly convex, finely and densely punctate, punctures concentrated along striae, elytra with moderately dense, long and erect setae in row on each sides of odd intervals, minute setae absent; epipleural margin robust, ending at strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra, sparsely setose; apex of elytra with a fine membraneous rim of short microtrichomes.
Ventral face coarsely and densely punctate, only metasternal plate and lateral metacoxa with a few long setae, otherwise almost glabrous. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.55. Abdominal sternites finely and moderately densely punctate, each with a row of coarse punctures bearing each a robust seta, otherwise glabrous. Pygidium strongly convex, finely and densely punctate, with moderately dense, long setae on apical half.
Legs long and narrow, shiny; femora finely and sparsely punctate, with two longitudinal rows of setae. Metafemur with anterior margin acute, without adjacent serrated line; posterior ventral margin almost straight, weakly widened in apical half, ventrally and dorsally not serrated, sparsely setose. Metatibia long and narrow, widest at apex, ratio width/ length: 1/ 3.9, sharply carinate dorsally, with only one group of spines at four fifths of metatibial length, basally of it beside the dorsal margin with a 3–4 single robust setae over the entire metatibial length; lateral face longitudinally convex, finely and irregularly densely punctate, glabrous; apex concavely and narrowly sinuate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres finely punctate dorsally, with moderately dense, fine setae ventrally; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated carina, subventrally with a second, smooth longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and little longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia long, bidentate; anterior claws symmetric, interior tarsal claws sharply pointed.
Aedeagus: Fig. 6E–G. Habitus: Fig. 6H. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica allolongipes Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from Serica longipes Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species by the much less dense pilosity on dorsal surface and the shape of parameres. The right paramere is bluntly widened before apex and almost pointed at apex, while in S. longipes the lateral blunt extension is absent and the apex is distinctly rounded. Furthermore, the left paramere is in basal half much more convexly widened.
Etymology. The name of the new species (adjective in nominative case) is derived from the combined Greek prefix ‘ allo- ’ (different, other) and the species name ‘ longipes ’, with reference on the similarity to this synoccurring species.
Variation. Length: 7.8–9.4 mm, elytral length: 6.1–6.6 mm, width: 4.1–4.5 mm.
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 30-31, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769