Malaia (M) medea Heller 1892, new species
Creators: name: Kaneko, Naoki
name: Wada, Kaoru
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Rutelidae
Malaia

description: Malaia (M.) medea Kaneko & Wada, new species (Figs. 1−6, 10−11)
Type locality. Puncak Palopo, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia.
Type material (8 specimens). Holotype, ♂ (deposited in NMNS): “[INDONESIA] / Puncak Palopo, / C. Sulawesi. / 23—25. VI. 2012. / KIYOSHI ANDO leg.”. Paratypes (5 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀): 2 ♂♂: “Puncak, Palopo / VI—VII, 1989 / Central SULAWESI ”; 2 ♂♂: “ INDONESIA / Puncak Palopo / Sulawesi Selatan / 30 31. XII, 1999 / N.
Ohbayashi leg.”; 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀: same data as holotype. Paratypes are preserved in the RIEB and EUM.
Description of the holotype (♂). Body shape ovoid, slightly bent laterally.
Color almost blackish-brown with a sparkly green gloss; legs black with green vitreous luster; antennomeres 1−5 dark orange, antennal club, maxillary palpi, and labial palpi black; elytra black with four reddish-brown maculae, including a pair of wide, elongated maculae in the anterior 1/4 and encircling scutellar shield, and remaining two maculae in the posterior 1/4 at a near apico-sutural angle; marginal membrane pale brown.
Head distinctly convex, densely and transversely rugoso punctured throughout; clypeus rectangular with rounded angles, weakly reflexed anterior margin, weakly concave at the center; ambiguous front-clypeal suture, depressed frons, and a shallow median groove extending to a vertex that is narrowly concave along the midline; vertex coarsely rugoso punctured, transforming into a concentric arrangement at side and base.
Pronotum approximately 1.4 times as wide as long, sides weakly constricted in the posterior half, then strongly curved and strongly converging in the anterior half; anterior angles acute and protrude strongly; posterior angles rectangular; disc with dense granulose texture and a pair of oblique depressions in the middle to anterior part of the lateral sides, furnished with sparse short appressed yellowish-white scaly hairs (0.05–0.17 mm in length) along the anterior to posterior angles; all marginal lines are complete.
Scutellar shield rounded triangle, densely rugoso punctured, covered with appressed yellowish-white scaly hairs (0.14–0.23 mm in length).
Elytra with very ambiguous rows; intervals almost flattened; humeral calli and posterior portion of the scutellar shield slightly depressed; disc with dense granulose texture; sides weakly rounded from anterior to posterior; lateral marginal lines rimmed completely and continuing to elytral apices; posterior margin evenly rounded; marginal membrane narrow, starting from basal 1/4, and extending to elytral apices.
Propygidium roughly rugoso punctured; disc furnished with dense fringe of appressed yellowish-white scaly hairs (0.10–0.17 mm in length) along posterior margin.
Pygidium weakly convex and apex broadly rounded; disc densely rugoso-reticulately punctured throughout, with dense appressed yellowish-white scaly hairs (0.15–0.17 mm in length), transforming into a concentric arrangement at the apex.
Mesoventrite roughly rugoso punctured and covered with sparse appressed white setae (0.10–0.17 mm in length). Mesoventral process short, compressed between mesocoxae, slightly projecting upward in lateral view; apex rounded and rimmed in ventral view.
Abdominal ventrites covered with rugoso-reticulate punctures, with a sparse transverse band of yellowish-white scaly hair (0.10–0.17 mm in length) in the middle, transforming laterally into dense long yellowish-white scaly hair (0.23–0.26 mm in length); ventrite 5 approximately as long as combined width of ventrites 3 and 4.
Legs with bidentate protibia, proximal tooth very weak and situated close to the apical tooth; pro-, meso-, and metafemur with sparse yellowish-white scaly hair (0.10–0.17 mm in length); protarsomere 1−4 almost equal in length; inner protarsal claw strongly curved and incised apically, upper branch spiniform, lower branch broad and obliquely truncated; outer mesotarsal claw incised at apex, upper branch spiniform; metatarsal claws very unequal, with outer claws approximately 1.5 times thicker and 1/3 longer than inner claws.
Aedeagus curved in lateral view, shape simple as shown in Figs. 10–11. Parameres almost symmetrical, with each lobe narrowly sinuate at the apex, and multiple sparse long reddish setae at the apex.
Female. Pygidium strongly convex. Abdominal ventrite 5 shorter than combined width of ventrites 3 and 4. Apical tooth of protibia long and spatulate; proximal tooth stout.
Measurements. Males (n = 6): total body length 6.4–6.9 mm (holotype: 6.4 mm), total body width 3.2–4.0 mm (holotype: 3.2 mm). Females (n = 2): total body length 7.3–7.4, total body width 3.8–4.0.
Morphological variation. Elytra color varies from dark blue to spotted reddish-brown on black. The reddishbrown maculae present as four maculae or two elongated maculae formed by connecting anterior and posterior maculae.
Differential diagnosis. The newly described species is similar to M. (M.) simulatrix (Figs. 7–9, 12–13) from Bangkai, Indonesia. However, this species is readily distinguishable from M. (M.) simulatrix by the following characteristics: 1) sparkly luster of pronotum, with strong oblique impression on each side. Malaia (M.) simulatrix displays less sparkly luster, with weaker oblique impression; 2) protibial proximal tooth very weak, whereas, in M. (M.) simulatrix, it is well developed; 3) mesotibia are slender (length: width = 4.5:1) as compared to M. (M.) simulatrix (length: width = 3.5:1); 4) metatibia are slender (length: width = 3.8:1) as compared to M. (M.) simulatrix (length: width = 3:1); 5) width of abdominal ventrites 2–4 in the male is shorter than those of M. (M.) simulatrix; 6) abdominal ventrite hairs are very sparse; 7) development of the mesoventral process is weak compared to M. (M.) simulatrix; 8) aedeagus is distinctly different.
Etymology. The new species is named after “Medea”, a character in Greek mythology. In Latin, “Simulatrix” is synonymous with “Circe”, who is also a character in Greek mythology, suggested to be a sister or aunt to Medea. The present species and M. (M.) simulatrix are closely similar, so we named it M. (M.) medea, new species.
Distribution. Indonesia: Sulawesi (Sulawesi Selatan).
Remarks. The present species has the following characteristics of the subgenus Malaia: 1) the posterior margin of the pronotum is rounded in an arch or truncated anterior to the scutellar shield; 2) in lateral view, the semicylindrical mesoventral process protrudes from the mesocoxa forward, but not downward. Thus, we distinguished this species as belonging to the subgenus Malaia. However, we consider the above characteristics to be unstable. In the future, the definition of subgenera may need to be revised.
description: Published as part of Kaneko, Naoki & Wada, Kaoru, 2022, A new species of the genus Malaia Heller, 1892 (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Anomalini) from Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, pp. 426-432 in Zootaxa 5104 (3) on pages 427-429, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5104.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/6332094