Maladera hiyarensis Ranasinghe & Eberle & Athukorala & Benjamin & Ahrens 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Ranasinghe, Sasanka
name: Eberle, Jonas
name: Athukorala, Namal
name: Benjamin, Suresh P.
name: Ahrens, Dirk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Maladera
Maladera hiyarensis

description: Maladera hiyarensis sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: EA7F3C4B-534E-40E5-ADC5-A5FE770CECEE
Figs 5E–H, 7H, 8G
Diagnosis
Maladera hiyarensis sp. nov. is in external appearance similar to M. anderssoni Fabrizi & Ahrens, 2014 and M. romanoi Fabrizi & Ahrens, 2014 being, however, stouter in shape and larger, the aedeagus has the distal part longer and narrower. The aedeagus is also rather similar to that of M. badullana Fabrizi & Ahrens, 2014, but the ventral convexity is in this new species less pronounced and the distal portion is longer and reflexed (lateral view).
Etymology
The new species is named after its type locality ‘Hiyare’ (adjective in the nominative singular).
Type material
Holotype SRI LANKA • ♂; “ X-SR1946, Sri Lanka, Galle District, Hiyare FR; 6.05959ºN, 80.31503ºE; 116m; 01-VII-2020; Benjamin & Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK.
Description
MEASUREMENTS. Length: 6.8 mm, length of elytra: 4.8 mm, width: 4.1 mm.
HABITUS (Fig. 5H) AND COLOURATION. Body oval, reddish brown, frons, disc of pronotum and a few spots on elytra dark brown, antenna and legs yellow, dorsal surface with iridescent shine, densely and shortly setose, elytra with numerous single erect setae.
HEAD. Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, little wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and strongly convergent to widely rounded anterior angles, lateral border and ocular canthus producing an indistinct blunt angle, margins moderately reflexed; anterior margin very weakly emarginate medially; surface shiny, weakly elevated medially, finely and densely punctate, distance between punctures equal their diameter, with a few erect setae in larger punctures; frontoclypeal suture fine and weakly angled medially; smooth area in front of eye approximately twice as wide as long; ocular canthus moderately long and narrow, impunctate, with a single short terminal seta. Frons with toment and iridescent shine, with fine, dense punctures and minute setae in punctures, with a few long, erect setae on disc and beside eyes. Eyes large, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.79. Antenna yellow, with ten antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, straight, 1.1 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and anteriorly flattened.
PRONOTUM. Moderately wide, widest at base, lateral margins in basal half straight and convergent, in anterior half weakly convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles moderately produced and sharp; anterior marginal line fine and complete, anterior margin weakly produced medially; surface finely and densely punctate, with short setae in punctures, otherwise glabrous; anterior and lateral borders sparsely setose, basal margin without marginal line; hypomeron ventrobasally carinate and slightly produced ventrally. Scutellum short and wide, triangular, with fine and dense punctures, along midline narrowly impunctate.
ELYTRA. Short oval, widest at posterior third, striae indistinctly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals flat, with fine, dense punctures, with short setae in punctures; odd intervals with a few impunctate dots which are darker and each bear at centre an erect seta; epipleural edge fine, ending at the weakly convex external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical border membranous, apex covered with a rim of short microtrichomes.
VENTRAL SURFACE. Moderately shiny, thorax and metacoxa with large and dense punctures, densely shortly setose; metacoxa with numerous long setae laterally; each abdominal sternite, in addition to evenly distributed fine and dense punctures bearing each a fine seta, with a distinct transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a long and more robust seta, penultimate sternite apically with a narrow, shiny smooth chitinous border. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur, with a semicircular ridge bearing robust setae. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/2.24. Pygidium weakly convex, finely densely punctate, with short dense setae, and numerous long setae along apical margin.
LEGS. Short and wide; femur with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and densely punctate, densely setose; metafemur shiny, anterior edge acute, lacking an adjacent serrated line, ventral surface densely punctate and setose; posterior ventral margin straight, strongly widened in apical half and very indistinctly serrate apically; posterior dorsal margin not serrated, densely setose. Metatibia short, widest at middle, posteriorly slightly narrowed, ratio width/length: 1/2.4, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal one shortly behind middle, apical one at four fifths of metatibial length, basally beside dorsal margin with two single punctures with serrated margins, each bearing single spines and beside them a longitudinal serrated line; lateral face longitudinal convex, with dense, fine punctures and with short setae in punctures; ventral margin finely serrate, with five strong spines equidistant from each other; medial face smooth, apex interiorly near tarsal articulation shallowly truncate. Meso- and metatarsomeres dorsally sparsely and very finely punctate and with minute setae in punctures, ventrally with robust, dense, short setae; metatarsomeres with a strongly serrated ventral ridge, beside it with a strong longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere as long as two following tarsomeres combined and as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate. All claws symmetrical, feebly curved and long, with normally developed basal tooth, distal protarsomeres lacking in holotype.
AEDEAGUS. Fig. 5E–G.
Female
Unknown.
Distribution
See Fig. 7H.
description: Published as part of Ranasinghe, Sasanka, Eberle, Jonas, Athukorala, Namal, Benjamin, Suresh P. & Ahrens, Dirk, 2022, New species of Sericini from Sri Lanka (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae). Part II, pp. 57-101 in European Journal of Taxonomy 821 (1) on pages 79-81, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.821.1799, http://zenodo.org/record/6595468