Neoserica panchmariensis Bhunia, Gupta, Chandra & Ahrens 2022, new species
Creators: name: Bhunia, Debika
name: Gupta, Devanshu
name: Chandra, Kailash
name: Ahrens, Dirk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Neoserica
Neoserica panchmariensis

description: Neoserica panchmariensis Bhunia, Gupta, Chandra & Ahrens, new species
(Figs. 1–4)
Type locality. India: Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad, Panchmari, 22.752030N, 77.734490 E.
Type material. Holotype, ♂: “ India: Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad, Panchmari 22.752030N, 77.734490 E, 05.vi.1999, leg. K. Chandra ” (NZSI). Paratype: 1 ♂ “ India: Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad, Panchmari, 22.752030N, 77.734490 E, 05.vi.1999, leg. K. Chandra ” (NZSI).
Description of the holotype, male. Body. Length: 6.1 mm, length of elytra: 4.6 mm, width: 4.2 mm. Body oblong-oval, shiny; dorsal face reddish brown, shiny; ventral face yellowish brown dull; head moderately shiny, surface almost glabrous, except few single setae.
Head. Labroclypeus narrow and subtrapezoidal, widest at base; lateral margins straight and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles strongly rounded; anterior margin distinctly emarginate medially, margins moderately reflexed. Frontoclypeal suture indistinctly incised, evenly curved. Smooth area anterior to eye weakly convex, twice as wide as long. Ocular canthus short, with a terminal seta. Frons with dense but fine punctures and with a single, long seta beside eyes. Antennae with ten antennomeres; club with five, straight antennomeres, slightly shorter than remaining antennomeres combined. Eyes small, ratio diameter/interocular width: 0.78. Mentum elevated and slightly flattened anteriorly.
Pronotum transverse, widest at base; lateral margins evenly convex and strongly convergent anteriorly; anterior angles distinctly produced and sharp; posterior angles blunt; anterior margin convex, with complete but indistinct marginal line; base without marginal line; surface densely and finely punctate, punctures less dense on midline, with minute setae in punctures; anterior and lateral margin finely setose; hypomeron carinate, not produced ventrally. Scutellum wide, triangular, with fine and dense puncture, punctures less dense on basal midline.
Elytra widest at middle; striae distinctly impressed, finely and sparsely punctate; intervals slightly convex, with fine and dense punctures, with minute setae in punctures; odd intervals with a very few short and white setae; epipleural edge robust, ending at strongly curved external apical angle of elytra; epipleura sparsely setose; apical border of elytra membranous, with a fine rim of microtrichomes.
Ventral surface dull, coarsely and densely punctate, glabrous. Metasternal disc sparsely covered with fine, short setae. Metacoxa with a few longer setae laterally. Abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate, sternites with a transverse row of punctures, punctures each bearing a fine seta. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.98. Pygidium moderately convex and dull, coarsely and densely punctate, without impunctate midline, glabrous except a few robust setae along apical margin.
Legs moderately long and wide, shiny; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate. Metafemur with anterior margin acute, without adjacent serrated line, but with few sparse setae; posterior margin smooth, weakly widened at apex, smooth at apex ventrally. Metatibia long and wide, widest at middle; dorsal margin sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal one at anterior third, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length; ratio of width/length: 1/2.16; lateral face longitudinally convex, shiny, impunctate and glabrous; ventral margin densely serrate, with four equidistant long and robust setae; medial face smooth and glabrous, apex finely serrate, moderately truncate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres dorsally impunctate, glabrous, neither laterally nor dorsally carinate, moderately setose ventrally; metatarsomeres with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally and a smooth subventral longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere as long as following two tarsomeres combined and slightly longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of both claws bluntly truncate at apex.
Aedeagus. Figs. 1–3.
Habitus. Fig. 4. Female unknown.
Variation. Paratype in morphology very similar to the holotype. Length 6.1–6.2 mm, length of elytra: 4.6–4.8 mm, width: 4.2–4.7 mm.
Differential diagnosis. Neoserica panchmariensis Bhunia, Gupta, Chandra & Ahrens, new species is part of the Neoserica speciosa group (Ahrens 2004) which includes N. speciosa Brenske, 1898, and N. assamensis (Frey, 1962). All species share the shiny reddish brown, medium sized body and an aedeagus with large asymmetric phallobase. Neoserica panchmariensis, new species differs from both known species in the shape of the male genitalia: Left apical phallobase ventrally lamina-like produced, right paramere twice as long as the left one, without any dorsal teeth; left paramere with a distinct basal lobe and sharply pointed at apex, over its entire length curved dorsally (Figs. 1, 3).
Etymology. The new species is named after the type locality, Panchmari (adjective in nominative case singular).
Distribution (Fig. 9). Only known from the type locality.
description: Published as part of Bhunia, Debika, Gupta, Devanshu, Chandra, Kailash & Ahrens, Dirk, 2022, New species and records of Sericini of India (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) III, pp. 489-494 in Zootaxa 5200 (2) on pages 490-491, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5200.5.6, http://zenodo.org/record/7271009