Nipponoserica daqiao 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
Nipponoserica
Nipponoserica daqiao

description: Nipponoserica daqiao Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 20A–D, 25
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “China-Guangdong, Daqiao env., 1000-1200m 24°54’N - 113°01’E, 1- 3.v.2002, Dr. R. Fencl lgt./ Coll. P. Pacholatko / 1151 Sericini: Asia spec.” (CP).
Description of the holotype. Length: 7.8 mm, length of elytra: 5.4 mm, width: 4.2 mm. Body oblong, dorsal surface yellow, frons and ventral surface darker brown, legs and antenna yellowish brown, dorsal surface entirely shiny and glabrous.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal and moderately wide, widest at base; lateral margins convex and convergent to moderately rounded anterior angles; lateral margin and ocular canthus producing a distinct blunt angle; margins weakly reflexed; anterior margin distinctly emarginate medially; surface flat and shiny, finely and very densely punctate, distance between punctures less than their diameter, anteriorly with a few short, erect setae. Frontoclypeal suture feebly incised and medially weakly angled; smooth area in front of eye short, approximately twice as wide as long; ocular canthus moderately long and slender, finely and densely punctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons with fine and dense punctures, entirely glabrous. Eyes very moderately large, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.63. Antenna with nine antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, almost 2.3 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined, strongly reflexed. Mentum elevated and flattened anteriorly. Labrum slightly produced and shallowly emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide and transverse, widest at base, lateral margins moderately evenly convex and narrowed anteriorly; anterior angles moderately produced and sharp, posterior angles blunt but strongly rounded at tip; anterior margin strongly and convexly produced medially with a distinct and broad marginal line; basal margin without marginal line; surface with dense and fine punctures, partly punctures fusing to wrinkles, glabrous; anterior and lateral borders sparsely setose; hypomeron distinctly carinate at base, not produced ventrally. Scutellum narrow and long, with fine and moderately dense punctures, impunctate along the middle, glabrous.
Elytra oblong, widest in posterior third, striae distinctly impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals weakly convex, second interval flat, with fine and dense punctures concentrated along striae; surface glabrous except for a few fine setae on odd intervals; epipleural border robust, weakly reflexed, ending at strongly curved external apical angle; epipleura densely setaceous; apical border membraneous, with a very fine rim of short microtrichomes (visible at 100x magnification).
Ventral surface partly dull or shiny, with dense, large punctures, sparsely setose, only on metasternal disc with a few longer setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae almost as wide as mesofemur, with irregularly scattered, strong setae. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/1.1. Metacoxa glabrous, laterally with a few fine setae. Abdominal sternites with fine, dense punctation, each with indistinct transversal row of coarse punctures bearing a short seta; penultimate sternite with a shallow and short median furrow and a pair of blunt protuberances beside it. Pygidium dull and strongly convex, finely and densely punctate, without smooth midline, with sparse short setae and a few longer setae adjacent to apical margin.
Legs slender, shiny; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and moderately densely punctate. Metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without a submarginal serrated line; posterior ventral margin straight, with a few strong setae medially, weakly widened in apical half and serrate; dorsal posterior margin completely serrated, with short setae. Metatibia slender and long, widest shortly before apex, ratio width/length: 1/4.2; dorsal margin sharply carinate, with one group of spines (basal group of spines reduced) at four-fifths of metatibial length, basally with a few single spines in punctures; external face beside dorsal margin longitudinally roof-like carinate, impunctate but with some longitudinal, very superficial wrinkles; ventral margin finely serrate, with two widely separated robust setae; medial face sparsely but coarsely punctate, without wrinkles; apex bluntly truncate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres glabrous and impunctate dorsally, with sparse, short setae ventrally; metatarsomeres dorsally with weak longitudinal impressions, ventrally with a strongly serrated ridge and a fine longitudinal carina laterally; first metatarsomere little longer than second, one third of its length longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate; protarsal claws symmetrical, basal tooth of interior claw sharply pointed as the external one. Aedeagus: Parameres asymmetrical, without long basal lobes.
Aedeagus: Fig. 20A–C. Habitus: Fig. 20D. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Nipponoserica daqiao Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from all shiny Nipponoserica species by its asymmetric parameres.
Etymology. The new species is named (noun in apposition) after the type locality Daqiao.
New records:
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 74-76, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769