Megistophylla brevivirgata Wang & Li & Gao 2024, new species
Creators: name: Wang, Fa-Lei
name: Li, Yan-Long
name: Gao, Chuan-Bu
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Megistophylla
Megistophylla brevivirgata

description: Megistophylla brevivirgata Wang & Gao, new species
(Figs. 1–19)
http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 7888011B-7496-4855-9BD5-197665EA1A61
Type material. Holotype, ♂ (MYNU): CHINA: Yunnan Province / Dehong, Yingjiang County / Mangyun Village / on light, 2022.V.15–20 / Shao-Fu Chen leg. Paratypes, 1 ♂ (CFLW): same data as for the holotype; 1 ♂ (CK): CHINE Yunnan SW / Longchuan Co. 1500m / 8. V. 2019 Tongbixuang / YANG leg.
Description of the holotype (Figs. 1–19). Length: 13.4 mm, width: 7.1 mm. Body elongate ovoid, rather convex (Fig. 3).
Color: Dorsal surface, legs and antennae dark-reddish brown, elytra and abdomen slightly lighter.
Head: Punctures on clypeus and frons rougher than those on pronotum and elytra. Clypeus wider but shorter than frons, anterior margin bilobed and reflexed; surface with dense, deep punctures (Fig. 4). Fronto-clypeal suture complete and clearly defined, slightly incurve in the middle. Compound eyes comparatively small; canthus with several setae; head approximately 0.64 times wider than interocular. Frontal carina strongly raised.Vertex densely and finely rugoso-punctate. Antennal with 10 antennomeres, antennal club composed of 7 antennomeres, antennomere 4 shorter than antennomeres 5–10, the longest club (antennomere 7 or 8) 2.8 times longer than antennomeres 1–3 combined (Fig. 5).
Mouthparts: Labrum strongly depressed at middle; dorsal side with dense short setae along depression (Fig. 16). Mandible with wrinkled molar lobe and rounded notch in incisor lobe (Fig. 17). Galea of maxilla with 5 developed, distal teeth (Fig. 18). Mentum distinctly bilobate at apical half; each paraglossa with 5–6 setae near base of labial palpus; outer area of paraglossa nearly triangular (Fig. 19).
Pronotum wide trapezoid, surface densely and finely punctate, becoming smaller to the sides; with a short, smooth middle longitudinal line on posterior half at first glance. Anterior margin complete, without basal marginal line; sides reflexed moderately in posterior 2/5, margins serrated. Anterior angles obtuse, posterior angles obtuse and rounded.
Scutellum glabrous; several punctures spread near lateral margins; anterior and central area without punctures (Fig. 6).
Elytra: Surface of elytra deeply and densely punctate, punctures on sutural costa sparser. Sutural costa developed, narrowest behind scutellum. Epipleuron disappear before propygidium, with a row of long soft setae.
Pygidium: Apex broadly rounded. Surface deeply and sparsely punctate. Sides slightly reflexed, margins with long hair-like setae (Fig. 7).
Venter: Ventral thorax covered with rather long yellow hair densely. Entire surface of metepisternum and metepimeron covered with dense and long yellow hair; metepisternum narrow. Abdominal sternite 1and posterior sternite 2 with dense punctures and dense shot setae; middle of abdominal sternites 3 and 4 sparsely punctate, punctures moderately dense on lateral sides; posterior half of abdominal sternite 5 with long soft setae arranged in a M-shaped line; sternite 6 with dense punctures and soft setae (Fig. 2). Surface of propygidium with dense rugosopunctures.
Legs: Metafemora bears a few of setae ventrally; central area glabrous. Protibia tridentate, middle tooth acute, basal tooth obtuse, terminal tooth prolonged; anterior margin with a row of long setae, inner spur sharp. Apex of mesotibia and metatibia widened; inner apex with a few short, stout spinule surrounded; inner apex with two spurs subequal in length. Inner surface of metatibia with a few of setae. Outer surface of meso- and metatibia with a complete transverse carina; setae on carina as long as those on apex. Protarsi and mesotarsi with setae sparsely at apex of tarsomeres 1–4. Each pro-, meso- and metatarsal claw with a tooth vertically medially.
Aedeagus: Phallobase longer than parameres, dorsal surface with a depressed longitudinal sulcus at middle. Phallobase connected to parameres by a triangular membrane on dorsum. Parameres asymmetric, with 6 long branches and 1 short branch; in lateral view, two upper branches stronger and curved, apex sharp; two lower branches slightly strange, apex sharp; two long central branches moderately longer than lower branches, apex rounded; base of upper left branch with a short branch, and globular apex of short branch covered with dense microsetae; area behind short branch depressed inwardly. Each inner side of dorsal branch with a thin triangle process. Endophallus with slender temones and few punctate sensillae on dorsum and two saccular membranes on ventral side; medial endophallus with 3–4 small cone-shaped thorns and 10 thumbtack-shaped thorns (Fig. 14). Spiculum gastrale Yshaped (Fig. 15).
Variability of paratypes. Male paratypes slightly differ from the holotype in the total body length (13.6–14.8 mm) and width (7.2 mm).
Female. Unknown.
Differential diagnosis. Megistophylla brevivirgata, new species can be distinguished from all the other known Megistophylla species by the presence of a small branch at the base of the upper left branch of the paramere (Figs. 8–11). This species is similar to M. octobracchia and M. hirsutissima Keith, 2020 in terms of the shape of male genitalia and body size. However, it differs from them by having a glabrous dorsal surface of the pronotum and elytra, an outer area of the paraglossa that is nearly triangular, and the presence of a short branch at the base of the upper left branch of the paramere (Gao et al. 2019, figs. 33–35; Keith 2020, figs. 9–10). This new species also shares a seven-segmented antennal club with M. planiceps Arrow, 1941. Nevertheless, it can be distinguished from M. planiceps by its small body size, denser punctuation on the pronotum and elytra, and a shorter antennal club (Arrow 1941).
Etymology. The specific epithet “ brevivirgata ” refers to the short branch at the base of upper left branch of paramere.
Chinese name. 短枝ƶDzẅm
Distribution. Known only from the type locality in Yingjiang County, southwestern region of Yunnan Province, China.
description: Published as part of Wang, Fa-Lei, Li, Yan-Long & Gao, Chuan-Bu, 2024, Description of two new Megistophylla Burmeister, 1855 species from China, with a redescription of M. andrewesi Moser, 1913 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae), pp. 431-446 in Zootaxa 5403 (4) on pages 432-434, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5403.4.2, http://zenodo.org/record/10562097