Amiserica jiuhuensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu 2021, new species
Creators: name: Ahrens, Dirk
name: Liu, Wangang
name: Pham, Phu Van
name: Fabrizi, Silvia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Amiserica
Amiserica jiuhuensis

description: Amiserica jiuhuensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 7J–N, 14
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Jiuhu Forestry Farm, Shennongjia, Hubei, 9.VII.1981, 1640m, leg. Han Yinheng / LW-211” (IZAS). Paratype: 1 ♂ “ Mts. Hefeng, Hubei, 30.V.1989, 800– 1200m, leg. Ma Wenzhen / LW-216” (IZAS).
Description of the holotype. Length: 7.0 mm, length of elytra: 5.2 mm, width: 3.9 mm. Body oblong, reddish brown, surface dull, labroclypeus shiny, antenna yellowish brown, dorsal surface almost glabrous.
Labroclypeus moderately wide, subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins straight and convergent to weakly rounded anterior angles, lateral border and ocular canthus producing a distinct angle; anterior margin bluntly emarginate medially, margins weakly reflexed; surface flat and shiny, finely and coarsely, densely punctate, with a few long erect setae in a transverse line at anterior third; frontoclypeal suture indistinctly impressed and angled medially; smooth area anterior to eye large, 1.5 times as wide as long. Ocular canthus moderately long and narrow, finely and sparsely punctate, with a short terminal seta, equal to 1/2.5 of ocular diameter. Frons dull in posterior half, anterior half moderately shiny, finely and densely punctate in anterior two third, with a few long setae beside eyes and behind frontoclypeal suture, punctation on posterior third less dense and glabrous. Eyes moderately large, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.64. Antenna with ten antennomeres, club with four antennomeres, slightly reflexed externally, three times as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and flattened anteriorly.
Pronotum widest at middle, lateral margins in basal half straight and weakly convergent towards base, in anterior part strongly curved and convergent to moderately produced and blunt anterior angles, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin almost straight, its marginal line widely lacking; basal margin without marginal line; surface with dense and coarse punctures each bearing a minute seta, otherwise glabrous; anterior and lateral borders sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate, basal margin of hypomeron not produced ventrally. Scutellum triangular, apex sharp, with coarse and dense punctures, smooth on basal midline, punctures with minute setae only.
Elytra oblong, widest in posterior third, striae distinctly impressed, with fine and dense punctures; intervals moderately convex, with fine, evenly and moderately dense punctures, punctures with minute setae only, on odd intervals with a few short erect fine setae; epipleural edge moderately strong, ending at strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose, apical border narrowly membraneous, with a rim of short microtrichomes.
Ventral surface dull, with coarse and dense punctures, glabrous except minute setae in punctures. Metacoxa only laterally with a few robust longer setae. Abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate and minutely setose, each sternite with a distinct transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a short, robust seta. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.36. Pygidium moderately convex and dull, with coarse, dense punctures and a few fine, long setae on posterior half.
Legs slender; femora finely densely and coarsely punctate and glabrous, except for minute setae of punctures, with two longitudinal rows of setae; anterior margin of metafemur acute, with an adjacent continuously serrated line, ventral posterior margin weakly widened in apical half but not serrate, dorsal posterior margin completely smooth as well. Metatibia slender and long, widest at apex, ratio width/length: 1/4.4, sharply carinate dorsally, with the basal group of spines at middle, the apical one at 5/6 of metatibial length, basally with a few single spines in punctures; beside dorsal margin without a continuously serrated line, only around coarse spine-bearing punctures serrated, beside dorsal margin finely punctate; lateral face longitudinally convex, with sparse and fine punctures bearing each a minute seta; ventral margin serrated, with three fine and long, robust setae of which the distal one is more distant from the others; medial face impunctate and glabrous; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation shallowly concavely sinuate. Tarsomeres dorsally impunctate, ventrally with short, dense setae. Metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated ridge, laterally not carinate; first metatarsomere little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and little longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, protarsal claws symmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw simply but sharply truncate at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 7J–M. Habitus: Fig. 7N. Female unknown.
Variation. Length: 7.0– 7.1 mm, length of elytra: 5.2–5.5 mm, width: 3.9–4.4 mm.
Diagnosis. Amiserica jiuhuensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from A. fengyangensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species by the upward curved left paramere (lateral view), and the shape of the dorsolateral apical processes of phallobase: The right process is shorter and narrower than the left one, while in A. fengyangensis the right process is more robust and more rounded at apex.
Etymology. The new species is named after the type locality, Jiuhu.
description: Published as part of Ahrens, Dirk, Liu, Wangang, Pham, Phu Van & Fabrizi, Silvia, 2021, An overview on the genus Amiserica Nomura, 1974 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), pp. 1-63 in Zootaxa 5050 (1) on pages 28-29, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5050.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5560512