Moronoserica banmethout Ahrens, Lukic, new species
Creators: name: Ahrens, Dirk
name: Liu, Wangang
name: Lukic, Daniel
name: Bai, Ming
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Moronoserica
Moronoserica banmethout

description: Moronoserica banmethout Ahrens, Lukic & Liu, new species
Figs. 20F–J, 31
Type material examined. Holotype: Ô “ Viet Nam: 10km E of BanMe Thout 570 m, 9.V.1060 / S. Quate Collector / 509 Asia Sericini spec.” (BPBM).
Description of the holotype. Length: 6.4 mm, length of elytra: 4.4 mm, width: 3.9 mm. Body oval, yellowish brown, elytra, pronotum and frons with smaller, irregular but symmetric, dark spots, head and pronotum partly with greenish shine, otherwise surface dull; labroclypeus simply shiny, dorsal surface glabrous.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal and short, widest at base, lateral margins convex and strongly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles convex, lateral border and ocular canthus produced into an indistinct, obtuse angle, anterior and lateral margins moderately reflexed, anterior margin weakly emarginate medially; surface weakly convex medially and shiny, finely and densely punctate, with a few long, erect setae; frontoclypeal suture indistinctly impressed and curved; smooth area in front of eye 2.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and triangular, impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons dull, with fine and moderately dense punctures, beside eyes with a few long setae, otherwise with minute setae in punctures. Eyes small, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.5. Antenna yellow, with ten antennomeres; club with four antennomeres subequal in length, club little shorter than remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum weakly convexly elevated anteriorly.
Pronotum wide, widest shortly before base; with one c-shaped central and two lateral, dark spots on each side; lateral margins convex and convergent anteriorly and posteriorly, anterior angles moderately produced and blunt, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin convexly produced medially, with a distinct and fine marginal line, basal margin without marginal line; surface with dense and fine punctures, only with minute setae in punctures, otherwise glabrous; anterior and lateral borders sparsely setose; hypomeron weakly carinate, carina not produced ventrally. Scutellum narrow and short, with fine and sparse punctures, impunctate on midline, with minute setae in punctures.
Elytra short oval, widest at middle, striae finely impressed and finely densely punctate, intervals convex and finely densely punctate, punctures concentrated long striae, with a few long white setae on penultimate lateral interval; interior apical angle of elytron with a robust seta; epipleura and smaller spots on odd intervals at base and middle, sutural interval completely yellow; epipleural edge robust but convex, ending at strongly convex external apical angle of elytra; epipleura densely setose, apical border broadly membraneous, with a rim of short microtrichomes.
Ventral surface dull, with fine and dense punctures, with dense short setae, setae adpressed; metacoxa minutely setose, laterally with robust adpressed setae; each abdominal sternite with indistinct transversal row of coarse and dense punctures, sternite bearing short strong setae between fine and dense punctation, all sternites bearing minute white setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae almost as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/1.84. Pygidium moderately convex, with fine and dense punctures bearing only minute setae, with a few long, fine setae beside apical margin, without smooth midline.
Legs moderately slender; femora on ventral surface dull, finely and moderately densely punctate, glabrous, with two longitudinal rows of setae; anterior edge of metafemur acute, with a robust adjacent continuously serrated line, posterior margin weakly convex and glabrous, ventrally weakly widened in apical half but not serrate, posterior margin dorsally not serrate. Metatibia moderately slender and long, widest at middle, dorsal and ventral margin almost subparallel, ratio width/length: 1/3.3, dorsally longitudinally convex, with two groups of spines, basal one shortly before middle, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single spines in the punctures; lateral face longitudinally convex, with dense and fine punctures, with minute setae, before the basal group of spines without serrated line; ventral margin sharp and serrated, with four robust and long, equidistant spines; medial face impunctate and smooth, apex interiorly (near tarsal articulation) distinctly truncate. Tarsomeres dorsally glabrous and impunctate, ventrally with a very few sparse, short setae. Metatarsomeres ventrally with a single strongly serrated carina, a subventral carina lacking; first metatarsomere as long as following two tarsomeres combined and almost twice as long as dorsal metatibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate, protarsal claws symmetrical.
Aedeagus: Fig. 20 F-I. Habitus: Fig. 20J. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Moronoserica banmethout Ahrens, Lukic & Liu, new species differs from Mor. helferi (Bohacz & Ahrens, 2020) by the distally narrowed left lamina of phallobase, which is in Mor. helferi widened towards apex; the left paramere in the new species is straight and convex at apex, while in Mor. helferi it is sharply pointed at apex and curved (lateral view).
Etymology. The name of the new species (noun in apposition) is derived from the type locality of the species, BanMe Thout.
description: Published as part of Ahrens, Dirk, Liu, Wangang, Lukic, Daniel & Bai, Ming, 2023, A taxonomic review of Microserica Brenske, 1894 from continental Asia (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), pp. 1-115 in Zootaxa 5241 (1) on pages 64-65, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5241.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7639734