Serica tengchongana 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 tengchongana

description: Serica tengchongana Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 13A–D, 23
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ China, W Yunnan prov., mts. 60km E Tengchong, 2200m, 19.-22.v.2006, S. Murzin & I. Shokhin / 853 Sericini: Asia spec.” (CP). Paratypes: 3 ♂♂, 1 ♀ “ China, W Yunnan prov., mts. 60km E Tengchong, 2200m, 19.-22.v.2006, S. Murzin & I. Shokhin ” (CP, ZFMK).
Description of the holotype. Length: 9.4 mm, length of elytra: 7.2 mm, width: 5.4 mm. Body elongate eggshaped, dark brown, partly with greenish toment or shine, elytra with dark spots, antenna yellowish, legs brown; dorsal surface dull and densely covered with short yellow setae being bent posteriorly.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, distinctly wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins almost straight and convergent anteriorly, anterior angles almost acute but rounded in tip, anteriorly deeply but not widely emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface flat and shiny, finely and densely punctate, finely densely setose, behind anterior margin glabrous; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly convex; smooth area anterior to eye large and flat, approximately twice as wide as long; ocular canthus moderately long and slender (1/3 of ocular diameter), with a few fine punctures bearing each a short seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and very dense punctures, evenly covered with short yellow setae being bent backwards and longer erect setae. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.49. Antenna with ten antennomeres; antennomeres three to five slightly wider than long, antennomere six and seven transverse and short; club with three antennomeres, 1.2 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight. Mentum weakly elevated, anteriorly flattened. Labrum transverse, short, strongly produced along the middle, moderately emarginate medially.
Pronotum subtrapezoidal, widest shortly before base, lateral margins evenly convex and strongly convergent anteriorly; anterior angles distinctly produced and acute; posterior angles strongly rounded; anterior margin medially with a fine marginal line and very weakly produced medially; surface on disc densely and coarsely punctate, almost glabrous, punctures on sides less dense and with dense short yellow setae; lateral margins sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate at base, but not produced ventrally. Scutellum large, triangular, finely and very densely punctate, pilosity as in lateral pronotum.
Elytra oval, widest at middle, striae indistinctly impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, very dense punctures; dark spots impunctate or with less dense punctures, with fine, short pilosity as in pronotum, without longer, erect setae; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose, apical margin with a very fine membranous rim composed of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, including metacoxa and abdominal sternites densely shortly setose; abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise shortly setose as rest of ventral surface; ultimate sternite at middle 1.5 times as long as penultimate one. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.44. Pygidium strongly convex and dull, finely and densely punctate, smooth midline narrow, with dense short setae, without long, erect setae.
Legs slender; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, coarsely and densely punctate between the rows, with robust setae on basal half; metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior edge, posterior margin ventrally serrated in apical half and not widened, dorsal posterior margin completely serrated, in basal half with a few long setae which are half as long as width of metafemur. Metatibia slender and long, widest shortly before apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/ 4.9, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group shortly before the middle, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; external face impunctate; ventral margin serrated, with two very widely separated robust setae; medial face glabrous and smooth; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation concavely truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally smooth. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally and dorsally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere as long as following two tarsomeres combined and twice as long as dorsal tibial spur; mesotarsomeres not carinate. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin serrate, with a few small teeth at base, anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw bluntly truncate as the external one.
Aedeagus: Fig. 13A–C. Habitus: Fig. 7D.
Diagnosis. Serica tengchongana Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from S. deuvei Ahrens, 2005 and S. hirtella Ahrens, 2005 by the serrated external margin of protibia, as well as by the different shape of parameres: the right paramere is strongly bent at middle (lateral view) being subdivided into a dorsal lobe and a ventral distal one.
Etymology. The species is named (adjective in nominative singular case) according to its vicinity to Tengchong.
Variation. Length: 9.4–12.11 mm, length of elytra: 7.2–9.5 mm, width: 5.4 mm. Female: antennal club short, little shorter than remaining antennomeres combined; pygidium at apex strongly convex; eyes as large as in male.
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 51-53, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769