Serica yuheba 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 yuheba

description: Serica yuheba Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 15A–D, 24
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Yuheba, Daozhen, Guizhou, 25.V.2004, leg. Yu Yang / LW-131/ 1143 Sericini Asia spec.” (HBUM). Paratype: 1 ♂ “ Yuheba, Daozhen, Guizhou, 25.V.2004, leg. Yu Yang ” (HBUM).
Description of the holotype. Length: 8.2 mm, length of elytra: 6.2 mm, width: 5.2 mm. Body elongate, dark brown, dull, partly with greenish toment or shine, elytra with several dark impunctate spots and a large round dark preapical spot, antenna yellow; dorsal surface densely covered with short adpressed scale-like, white setae.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, little wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins in basal half straight, in apical half strongly convex and convergent towards strongly rounded anterior angles; anterior margin deeply emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface flat and shiny, finely and densely punctate, with numerous fine erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved but indistinct under thick toment; smooth area anterior to eye small, as wide as long; ocular canthus short and slender (1/4 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and dense punctures, punctures with moderately dense, adpressed, white, scale-like setae and with long fine erect setae. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.45. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, 1.2 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight. Mentum strongly elevated anteriorly, convex. Labrum moderately produced along middle, deeply emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide but subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins straight and strongly convergent anteriorly; anterior angles moderately produced and strongly convex; posterior angles strongly rounded; anterior margin straight, without distinct marginal line; surface irregularly densely and finely punctate, partly punctures less dense, along basal midline broadly impunctate and glabrous, otherwise with dense, short, white, scale-like, adpressed setae, partly on disc only with minute setae; anterior and lateral margins sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate at base, distinctly produced ventrally. Scutellum large, triangular, finely and densely punctate, median base impunctate, pilosity as in pronotum.
Elytra oval, widest at middle, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, moderately dense punctures; pilosity as in pronotum, dark spots impunctate and glabrous; epipleural edge fine but at middle strongly widened and concavely reflexed, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; with a blunt, transverse preapical carina before narrowly membraneous apical margin, with a fine rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, including metacoxa densely setose, with long fine setae and dense white scale-like setae; metacoxa additionally with a few robust lateral setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.3. Abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise pilosity as in the rest of the ventral surface; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a wide membraneous rim being one quarter as long as sternite. Pygidium strongly convex, dull, dark, finely and densely punctate, with long setae along apical margin, otherwise pilosity as in abdominal sternites.
Legs slender, shiny, pro- and mesofemur dull; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate between the rows. Metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior edge; ventral posterior margin serrated and only weakly widened at apex, dorsal posterior margin completely serrated, in basal half with a few long setae which are half as long as metafemur width. Metatibia slender and long, widest shortly before apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/3.67, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at middle, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; external face sparsely and finely punctate, with a few short longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with two widely separated robust setae; medial face glabrous, impunctate but wrinkled; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, with fine elongate punctures dorsally. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere distinctly longer than following two tarsomeres combined and longer than twice as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin smooth not extended laterally at middle; protarsal claws asymmetric, basal tooth of interior claw small lobiform, convex at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 15A–C. Habitus: Fig. 15D. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica yuheba Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from all other species of the Serica nigroguttata group by the strongly reflexed lateral margin of the elytra, as well as the strong mesal tooth at the middle of the left paramere.
Etymology. The new species is named (noun in apposition) after its type locality, Yuheba.
Variation. Length: 8.2–8.3 mm, length of elytra: 6.2–6.3 mm, width: 5.2–5.3 mm.
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 58-59, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769