Phyllophaga (Cnemarachis) guanahacabibensis Serrano & Morón 2017, new species
Creators: name: Serrano, Annery
name: Morón, Miguel Ángel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Phyllophaga
Phyllophaga guanahacabibensis

description: Phyllophaga (Cnemarachis) guanahacabibensis Serrano & Morón, new species
(Figs. 1–4)
Type series. Holotype male and 1 paratype male labeled: “ CUBA: Pinar del Río Prov. / La Bajada. Reserva de la Biosfera Guanahacabibes / deciduous forest, 10 m, collected at light / 21.922424°N, - 84.475688°W / 25-VII-2015; A. Serrano, G. Molina, S. González. Both the holotype and paratype are deposited at MFP.
Diagnosis. Length 12.3 mm, width 5.5 mm. Dorsal surface shiny, without pruinosity; head brown, pronotum and elytra yellowish castaneous; anterior clypeal margin sinuate; antennal club much shorter than funicle and scape; pronotal lateral margin entire; prosternum without obtuse postcoxal projection; metasternum glabrous, fifth abdominal sternite pruinose with some scattered setae; pygidial disc glabrous; male genitalia as in Figs. 2–3.
Holotype description. Head: Surface densely punctate with deep, well-defined punctures; glabrous. Clypeus with apex reflexed, clearly sinuate at middle; densely punctate. Frontoclypeal suture well defined. Frons densely punctate. Labrum bicallose, the callosities irregularly punctate and setose. Antennae with 9 antennomeres; terminal 3 forming club, club less than half the length of funicle and scape; club, funicle, and scape shiny and setose.
Pronotum: Surface moderately punctate with deep, well-defined punctures. Punctures less deep and less dense than those on head, glabrous. Anterior angles weakly acute; lateral margins entire (not crenulate), widest medially. Elytra: Yellowish castaneous, with suture broadly dark. Surface moderately to densely punctate with shallow, well-defined punctures; shiny, appearing largely glabrous, but with some scattered setae. Striae weakly defined. Legs: Protibia with 3 teeth, 2nd tooth closer to apical tooth. Mesotibiae and metatibiae without medial transverse carinae, longitudinal carina complete; with some spines on lateral margin, especially in mesotibia and less so with shorter spines in metatibia. Metatibial spurs unmodified, shorter spur approximately 3/4 length of longer spur. Longer spur almost twice length of first tarsomere. Claws: symmetrical with medial triangular tooth slightly directed to the base, apex curved and slender. Venter: Prosternum without projection behind procoxae. Metasternum weakly setose with scarce and short setae, without pruinosity. Surface moderately punctate. Abdominal sternites shiny without pruinosity, punctures less dense but deeper than those of metasternum, surface glabrous. Pygidium: Yellowish dark brown, with surface densely punctate with large, shallow, well-defined punctures; glabrous except with scattered setae apically. Male genitalia: Phallobase enlarged and strongly projecting, parameres with large preapical prominences, aedeagus with horn like dorsal structures and numerous apical stout bristles (Figs. 2–3).
Variation. Paratype length 12.4 mm, width 5.5 mm. Female unknown.
Etymology. Named for the locality in where it occurs. Guanahacabibes is an indigenous precolumbian name that has survived. We do not know what this word means but this area was home of indigenous groups with similar name: Guanahatabeyes.
Distribution (Fig. 4). CUBA: Pinar de Río Prov. Biosphera Reserve Guanahacabibes.
Biological data. Two specimens were collected at a light trap during July in a tropical deciduous forest located at 10 m in elevation.
Remarks. This species keys to couplet 31 in Chapin (1932) but does not match the description or genitalic illustrations of either Phyllophaga microsoma Chapin, 1932 or P. bruneri Chapin, 1932. Similar to P. bruneri and P. suturalis (Chevrolat, 1835), except darker and elytral suture margin less broad. Body larger than P. bruneri and has a proportionally larger head. Phyllophaga guanahacabibensis is similar in color and size to P. franciscana García-Vidal, 1984 described from western Cuba, but differ from this species in characteristics of male genitalia and protibia teeth.
description: Published as part of Serrano, Annery & Morón, Miguel Ángel, 2017, Four new species of Phyllophaga Harris (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from western Cuba, pp. 575-583 in Zootaxa 4362 (4) on pages 576-577, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4362.4.6, http://zenodo.org/record/1095389