Serica ziqingi Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu 2022, new species
Creators: name: Ahrens, Dirk
name: Fabrizi, Silvia
name: Bai, Ming
name: Liu, Wangang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Serica
Serica ziqingi

description: Serica ziqingi Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 12E–H, 24
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Mts. Maoershan, Guangxi, 15.VII.1985, 1100m, leg. Wang Ziqing / LW- 140/ 1147 Asia Sericini spec. ” (IZAS).
Description of the holotype. Length: 8.1 mm, length of elytra: 6.2 mm, width: 4.8 mm. Body elongate, dark brown, dull, partly with greenish shine or toment, labroclypeus, anterior frons and anterior pronotum shiny; ventral surface and legs reddish brown; elytra with yellow spots, in punctures lighter, antenna yellow; dorsal surface almost glabrous except a single and short, white adpressed setae on pronotum and elytra.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins convex and strongly convergent, anterior angles blunt; anterior margin widely and distinctly emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface flat, finely and densely punctate, with numerous erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved and slightly elevated; smooth area anterior to eye small and convex, as wide as long; ocular canthus short and slender (1/4 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons dull only in posterior half, flat, with fine and dense punctures, with fine and long setae beside eyes and on disc. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.55. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, 0.8 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight. Mentum strongly elevated anteriorly, convex. Labrum moderately produced along middle, distinctly emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide but subtrapezoidal, widest shortly before base, lateral margins evenly convex and strongly convergent anteriorly, and slightly also posteriorly; anterior angles moderately produced and sharp; posterior angles blunt; anterior margin medially strongly convex, with indistinct marginal line; surface finely and densely but irregularly punctate, along midline narrowly impunctate in basal half, partly punctures fusing with each other rugosely, with a shallow impression on each side on disc; surface with minute or short, pale, adpressed setae in punctures; anterior and lateral margins sparsely setose; along base narrowly with dull toment; hypomeron carinate at base, weakly produced ventrally. Scutellum moderately large, triangular, finely and very densely punctate, on basal midline impunctate, with minute setae in punctures.
Elytra oval, widest at posterior third, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, sparse punctures; with a few single, fine, short, white, erect setae on each interval; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical margin narrowly membraneous, with a fine rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface dull, almost glabrous; metacoxa with a few short lateral setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.45. Abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise glabrous; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a wide membraneous rim being one quarter as long as sternite. Pygidium moderately convex and dull, dark with numerous yellow spots, finely and densely punctate, smooth midline narrow, with sparse, moderately long setae on apical half.
Legs slender, shiny, pro- and mesofemur dull; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate between the rows. Posterior legs missing in holotype. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin smooth, weakly extended at middle; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw sharply pointed at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 12E–G. Habitus: Fig. 12H. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica ziqingi Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from the other Serica sensu lato species by the short antennal club in male, the particular mrohology of aedeagus, with the parameres bein almost as long as the phallobase and being both curved externally. It resembles somewhat the species of the Serica nigroguttata group or Taiwanoserica, but from both it differs by the shiny head and pronotum.
Etymology. The species is named (noun in nominative genitive case) after its collector, Wang Ziqing.
Key to species of Serica velutina group (♂) (from Ahrens 2005, extended):
1 External lateral margin of protibia smooth.................................................................. 4
- External lateral margin of protibia serrated................................................................. 2
2 Parameres long and narrow............................................................................. 9
- Parameres short and moderately wide, at maximum half as long as phallobase..................................... 3
3 Right paramere strongly bent at middle (lateral view), dorsal and a ventral distal lobe widely fused at base; left paramere short and circular in cross-section in apical half. ...................... S. tengchongana Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
- Right paramere with well separated and large basal lobe; left paramere slightly longer and blade-like widened in apical half.. ..................................................... S. allotengchongana Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
4 Sixths abdominal sternite medially as long as the preceding sternite............................................. 5
- Sixths abdominal sternite medially strongly shortened, half as long as the preceding sternite.......................... 6
5 Parameres equal in length..................................................... S. baiyungshanica Ahrens, 2005
- Left paramere shortened............................................................. S. velutina Arrow, 1946
6 Parameres equal in length............................................................ S. hirtella Ahrens, 2005
- Left paramere moderately shortened...................................................................... 7
7 Dorsal lobe of the right paramere is wide and short. Left paramere dorsoventrally less extended and straight.............. ................................................................................. S. deuvei Ahrens, 2005
- Dorsal lobe of the right paramere is narrow and long. Left paramere dorsoventrally more extended and slightly curved inward............................................................................................... 8
8 Subapical portion of right paramere narrower, flat, its dorsal lobe shorter; left paramere at base wide (lateral view)................................................................................. S. langeri Ahrens & Fabrizi, 2011
- Subapical portion of right paramere wider and more concavely arched, its dorsal lobe longer; left paramere at base narrow (lateral view)..................................................... S. emaw Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
9 Parameres equal in length. Phallobase without tubercles...................................................... 10
- Left paramere moderately shortened. Phallobase with robust preapical tubercles.................................. 11
10 Left paramere long and strongly curved (in dorsal view abruptly bent basally); right paramere wider in basal half; dorsoapical portion of phallobase weakly convex (all lateral view). ................................. S. lijiangensis Ahrens, 2005
- Left paramere shorter and less curved (in dorsal view almost straight); right paramere narrower; dorsoapical portion of phallobase more strongly convex (all lateral view). .................................. S. pilumna Ahrens & Fabrizi, 2009
11 Phallobase dorsally with two large tubercles. Right paramere strongly curved (lateral view). Left paramere with a subapical small lateral tooth.................................................................. S. bicornis Ahrens, 2005
- Phallobase ventrally with two large tubercles. Right paramere moderately curved (lateral view). Left paramere narrow, with a blunt lateral tooth at middle............................... S. ventrituberculata Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
description: Published as part of Ahrens, Dirk, Fabrizi, Silvia, Bai, Ming & Liu, Wangang, 2022, Taxonomic revision of Serica MacLeay, 1819 (sensu lato) from China and adjacent areas (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), with updates on Nipponoserica Nomura, 1972, pp. 1-83 in Zootaxa 5186 (1) on pages 49-51, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769