Maladera champhaiensis Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gupta, Devanshu
name: Bhunia, Debika
name: Ahrens, Dirk
name: Chandra, Kailash
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Maladera
Maladera champhaiensis

description: Maladera champhaiensis Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra, sp. nov.
(Fig. 1A–D)
Type locality. India: Mizoram, Champhai, 23.479N, 93.325E.
Type material. Holotype, ♂: “ India, Mizoram, Champhai, 23.479N, 93.325E, 04.iv.1994, leg. G.C. Sen and Party ” (NZCI). The holotype specimen bears additionally a red printed label with the following text: “ Maladera champhaiensis sp. nov., HOLOTYPE, Devanshu Gupta, Debika Bhunia, Dirk Ahrens & Kailash Chandra, Det. 2024”.
Description of holotype. Length: 10.1 mm, length of elytra: 7.8 mm, width: 6.0 mm.
Body oval, uniformly dark brown, dorsal and ventral face dull. Head and anterior pronotum moderately shiny, except lateral setae of elytra and pronotum nearly glabrous.
Head. Labroclypeus wide, trapezoidal, widest at base and shiny, lateral margins moderately convex and convergent anteriorly, producing an indistinct angle with ocular canthus, not incised before labrum; anterior angles strongly convex; anterior margin weakly emarginate medially; margins weakly reflexed; surface slightly convex, coarsely and densely punctate, with a few single and fine, erect setae on each side behind anterior margin. Frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved; ocular canthus short and wide, finely and moderately punctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons shiny, in posterior third dull, finely and moderately densely punctate, with a few single and short setae beside eyes. Eyes large, ratio ocular diameter/interocular distance: 0.9. Antenna with ten antennomeres, club with three antennomeres, as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum convexly elevated, anteriorly slightly flattened.
Pronotum widest at base, lateral margins evenly and convexly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles moderately sharp, distinctly produced, posterior angles blunt, moderately rounded at tip; anterior margin with complete marginal line, nearly straight; lateral and lateral anterior margin with long and fine setae; surface finely and densely punctate, with microscopic setae in punctures, otherwise glabrous. Scutellum wide, triangular, punctures fine and moderately dense, glabrous.
Elytra wide, widest at middle, external apical angle strongly rounded, striae finely strongly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals weakly convex, finely and moderately densely punctate, with only microscopic setae in punctures; epipleural edge ending at external apical angle of elytra; epipleura with long and sparse setae; apical margin with a broad membranous rim of fine microtrichomes.
Ventral surface coarsely and densely punctate, with microscopic setae in punctures, with a few longer setae on mesosternum and metasternal plate. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.45. Metacoxa minutely punctate, punctures with minute setae. Abdominal sternites finely and moderately densely punctate, with a transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a robust seta, ultimate sternite with dense and long setae. Pygidium dull, strongly convex, coarsely and moderately densely punctate, with long setae along the apical margin, otherwise with microscopic setae in punctures.
Legs wide, femora with two longitudinal rows of setae. Metafemur shiny, superficially punctate, anterior margin acute, with adjacent, straight and complete serrated line, anterior row of setae present but its setae short; posterior ventral margin almost straight, weakly widened in apical half, neither ventrally nor dorsally serrated but smooth, glabrous. Metatibia moderately wide and short, widest at middle, ratio width/length: 1/2.3, sharply carinate dorsally; with two groups of spines, basal one shortly behind middle, apical one at four fifths of metatibial length, in basal third with a short, serrated line parallel to dorsal margin and 3–4 coarse punctures each bearing a fine seta. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally, circular in cross section, with sparse, fine setae ventrally; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated carina, subventrally with a second, smooth longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere distinctly shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and slightly longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, teeth moderately large. All claws symmetrical, feebly curved and long, with normally developed basal tooth.
Aedeagus: Fig. 1A–C. Habitus: Fig. 1D.
Female unknown.
Distribution. The species is known only from the type locality.
Diagnosis. Maladera champhaiensis sp. nov. resembles M. alloservitrita Sreedevi, Speer, Fabrizi & Ahrens, 2018 in its external and genital morphology. The new species differs from M. alloservitrita by the angles of the dorsomedian process of phallobase and the shape of the parameres: the left paramere is not fused with the phallobase, the right one is short not being extended beyond the apex of the left paramere (Sreedevi et al. 2018; fig. 1 A–E, p. 99).
Etymology. Maladera champhaiensis sp. nov. is named after its type locality (adjective in nominative case singular).
description: Published as part of Gupta, Devanshu, Bhunia, Debika, Ahrens, Dirk & Chandra, Kailash, 2025, New species and records of Sericinae from India and Nepal (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), pp. 371-385 in Zootaxa 5613 (2) on pages 372-374, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5613.2.11, http://zenodo.org/record/15216371