Phyllophaga (Cnemarachis) sabanalamarensis Serrano & Morón 2017, new species
Creators: name: Serrano, Annery
name: Morón, Miguel Ángel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Phyllophaga
Phyllophaga sabanalamarensis

description: Phyllophaga (Cnemarachis) sabanalamarensis Serrano & Morón, new species
(Figs. 11–17)
Type series. Holotype male and 4 paratypes (all females) labeled: “ CUBA: Pinar del Río Prov./ Sabanalamar / sabana de arenas blancas, collected at light / 22.46530556°N, - 83.74644444°W / 6-V-2015; A. Serrano, A. Serrano-Rodríguez. Holotype and all four paratypes deposited in MFP.
Diagnosis. Length 24.4 mm, width 12.02 mm. Body large, stout, slightly depressed, glabrous; pronotal disc shiny black or dark brown with yellow lateral borders. Elytra shiny, yellowish brown. Clypeus with anterior margin widely rounded, briefly sinuate medially; antennal club much shorter than funicle and scape; lateral pronotal margin entire; prosternum with obtuse postcoxal projection; metasternum setose, abdominal sternites shiny, without pruinosity, with scattered setae; pygidial disc glabrous; male genitalia as in Figs 12–16.
Holotype description. Head: Black, surface densely punctate with fine, deep, and well-defined punctures; glabrous. Eye canthus with many stout setae. Clypeus with apical margin rounded briefly sinuate at middle, and slightly reflexed; densely and finely punctate. Frontoclypeal suture well defined. Frons densely punctate as clypeus, not tuberculate. Antennae with 9 antennomeres, with terminal 3 forming club; club short, compact, 1/3 length of funicle and scape; club, funicle, and scape shiny and glabrous except scape with a lateral row of fine and slender setae. Pronotum: Wide, not strongly convex, with disc black disk and lateral margins yellow. Surface sparsely punctate with small and shallow punctures; glabrous. Anterior angles weakly acute; lateral margins entire (not crenulate) emarginate, widest at medial point but rounded and not angulate. Surface shiny and mostly glabrous, except for a few slender setae on lateral and anterior margins. Posterior angles rounded. Elytra: Uniformly colored with surface moderately to densely punctate with shallow punctures; shiny, largely glabrous. Sutural striae well defined, discal striae weak. Legs: Protibia with 3 equidistant teeth, 3rd shorter than 2nd. Mesotibiae and metatibiae without medial tranverse carinae, with spines on lateral margin, and lateral row of slender setae. Metatibial spurs unmodified, shorter spur approximately half the length of longer spur. Longer spur nearly as long as first tarsomere. Claws: symmetrical with medial triangular tooth, apex curved and sharply pointed. Venter: Prosternum without obtuse postcoxal projection. Metasternum densely and uniformly clad with long setae, without pruinosity. Sparsely punctate, punctures small and shallow as on prosternum. Abdominal sternites weakly shiny, without pruinosity, less densely punctate than metasternum; surface glabrous. Pygidium: Surface densely punctate with small, shallow, well-defined punctures; glabrous except with scattered setae apically; shiny, without pruinosity; yellowish light brown. Male genitalia: Phallobase widened, rounded, parameres short, with nearly truncate apex; aedeagus wide, with tube-like, sclerotized support and numerous preapical spines. Asymmetrical, with phallobase notch to the left of the midline and basal aedeagus claw curved to right (Figs. 12–15).
Variation. Female length 24.3–24.45 mm, width 12.0– 12.2 mm. Similar to male except: frons more densely punctate, clypeus less rounded and more emarginate. Genital plates as in Fig. 16.
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the type locality "Sabanalamar".
Distribution (Fig. 17). CUBA: Sabanalamar. Pinar de Río Province.
Biological data. Specimens were collected at light trap during May in savanna located at 10 m in elevation.
Remarks. This species keys to couplet 10 in Chapin (1932) and is similar to P. baracoana in length, lateral margins of pronotum entire, elytra sutural margin tumid and elevated, and aedeagus asymmetrical but does not match other aspects of the description or genitalic illustration. Phyllophaga sabanalamarensis differs on other aspects of P. baracoana description such as the pronotum coloration, slightly flattened body dorsoventrally, and aedeagus structure. Phyllophaga baracoana has phallobase notch of aedeagus to the right of the midline and two basal aedeagal claws. None of the species described by Chapin (1932, 1935), Garcia-Vidal (1975, 1978, 1984, 1987, 1988), or Smith & Paulsen (2015) have similar body form and coloration.
description: Published as part of Serrano, Annery & Morón, Miguel Ángel, 2017, Four new species of Phyllophaga Harris (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from western Cuba, pp. 575-583 in Zootaxa 4362 (4) on pages 579-580, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4362.4.6, http://zenodo.org/record/1095389