Serica gaoligong 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 gaoligong

description: Serica gaoligong Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 7F–J, 22
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Yunnan 2200-2500m 24.57N 98.45E 8-16/5 Gaoligong mts. Vit Kuban leg. 1995/ 1136 Sericini: Asia spec.” (CP). Paratypes: 1 ♂ “ Yunnan 2200-2500m 24.57N 98.45E 8-16/5 Gaoligong mts. Vit Kuban leg. 1995” (ZFMK), 2 ♂♂ “N-Vietnam, Lao Cai Prov., Hoang Lien NP, Tram Ton, N22°21.197’ E103°46.513 ’, 1800-2050m 13.- 16.5.2015, leg. A. Skale ” (ZFMK).
Description of the holotype. Length: 9.6 mm, elytral length: 6.9 mm, width: 4.9 mm. Body oblong, dark reddish brown, dull, legs brown, antenna yellow, with numerous short and long setae on dorsal surface.
Labroclypeus moderately wide, trapezoidal, lateral margins stright and moderately convergent, producing a distinct angle with ocular canthus; anterior angles strongly rounded; anterior margin moderately sinuate medially, margins strongly reflexed; surface flat, finely and densely punctate, with numerous long and erect setae; frontoclypeal suture indistinct, curved; ocular canthus moderately short and narrow (1/3 of ocular width), finely and densely punctate, with 1–3 short terminal setae. Frons with dull toment, with coarse, dense punctures and numerous long setae. Antenna with nine antennomeres, club with three antennomeres, three times as long as remaining antennomeres combined, strongly reflexed. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.58. Mentum convexly elevated and flattened anteriorly.
Pronotum widest at base, lateral margins in basal half straight and weakly convergent, in anterior half convex and distinctly convergent anteriorly; anterior angles almost blunt, weakly rounded at tip, and weakly produced, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin strongly convex, marginal line complete; basal margin without marginal line; surface with mixed coarse and fine, dense punctures, with numerous short and longer erect or forward-directed yellow setae. Hypomeron very weakly carinate ventrally. Scutellum narrow and long, triangular, with fine, dense punctation, at base with a smooth impunctate triangular area, with numerous short adjacent setae.
Elytra narrow, elongate, widest in posterior quarter, striae distinctly impressed, finely punctate, intervals weakly convex, finely and densely punctate, punctures concentrated along striae, elytra with moderately dense, long and erect setae in row on each sides of odd intervals, minute setae absent; epipleural margin robust, ending at strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra, sparsely setose; apex of elytra with a fine membraneous rim of short microtrichomes.
Ventral face coarsely and densely punctate, only metasternal plate and lateral metacoxa with a few long setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.47. Abdominal sternites finely and moderately densely punctate, each with a row of coarse punctures bearing each a robust seta, otherwise glabrous. Pygidium moderately convex, finely and densely punctate, with a few short setae.
Legs long and narrow, shiny; femora finely and sparsely punctate, with two longitudinal rows of setae. Metafemur with anterior margin acute, without adjacent serrated line; posterior ventral margin almost straight, weakly widened in apical half, ventrally and dorsally not serrated, sparsely setose. Metatibia long and narrow, widest at apex, ratio width/ length: 1/ 4.1, sharply carinate dorsally, with four groups of spines, basal one at first quarter, second one at middle, third one at two thrids, apical one at four fifths of metatibial length, basally glabrous; lateral face longitudinally convex, finely and irregularly densely punctate, glabrous; apex concavely and narrowly sinuate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres finely punctate dorsally, with moderately dense, fine setae ventrally; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated carina, subventrally with a second, smooth longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia long, bidentate; anterior claws symmetric, interior tarsal claws sharply pointed.
Aedeagus: Fig. 7F–I. Habitus: Fig. 7J. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica gaoligong Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from Serica longipes Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species by the shape of parameres: the right paramere is more strongly bent at middle and sarply pointed at apex.
Etymology. The name of the new species (noun in apposition) is derived from its type locality (Gaoligong).
Variation. Length: 9.1–9.6 mm, elytral length: 6.8–6.9 mm, width: 4.8–4.9 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 33-34, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769