Maechidius gressitti Frey 1969
Creators: name: Telnov, Dmitry
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Maechidius
Maechidius gressitti

description: Maechidius gressitti Frey, 1969
Figs 41, 120
Type material
Holotype
PAPUA NEW GUINEA • ♂; “ NEW GUINEA: PAPUA Kiunga, Fly River X-21-24-1957 [p]// W.W. Brandt Collector [p] // TYPE [p, red label]// Maechidius Gressitti n. sp [h] det. G.Frey,1967/68 [p]// + 2” [h]”; BPBM. Studied from photographs.
Paratypes
PAPUA NEW GUINEA • 1 ♂; “ NEW GUINEA: PAPUA Kiunga, Fly River X-26-28-1957 // W. W. Brandt Collector // P TYPE // Maechidius gressitti det. G.Frey, 1967/68 n sp”; NHMB. Studied from photographs • 1 spec.; “ NEW GUINEA: (NE) Wau, Morobe Distr. 1200m, 2- 10. XI. ‘61// J. &M.Sedlacek M. V. Light Trap BISHOP// PARATYPE // Maechidius gressitti det. G.Frey, 1967/68 n sp”; NHMB. Not studied.
New material
PAPUA NEW GUINEA • 1 spec.; “NEW GUINEA: PAPUA Kiunga, Fly River X-9-14-1957 // W. W. Brandt Collector // Maechidius gressitti det. G.Frey, 1967/68 n sp”; NHMB.
Remarks
Frey (1969: 503) described this species from 5 ♂ ♀ specimens from “Papua Kiunga Fly River” stating that “the holotype and paratype are in Bishop Museum, Honolulu [BPBM]. 2 paratypes are in my museum [NHMB]” (translated from German). There are two specimens from Papua New Guinea in NHMB, but one of them is from E New Guinea (Wau) and not from the Transfly lowlands as specified in the description. Moreover, there is one additional specimen from the type locality, which is not labelled as paratype. I had no opportunity to study this specimen, which is probably misidentified (occurrence of New Guinea’s Southern lowlands species in Wau (which is located at an altitude of over 1000 m a.s.l.) is not impossible but doubtful) or mislabelled (it is not impossible that the paratypic label of this specimen in fact belongs to the second NHMB specimen from the type locality).
Description
Male labroclypeus deeply broadly emarginate anteriorly, its lateral margins strongly sinuous in both dorsal and lateral views (Figs 41, 120). Anterolateral angles subacute, rounded, in male strongly protruding anteriad. Canthus broadly rounded in dorsal view. Punctures of frons circular to hexagonal, intervening spaces glossy. Setae suberect, moderately long. Pronotum transverse, flattened dorsally, glossy to subopaque dorsally and laterally. Anterior margin sinuous with protruding anterolateral angles and mesal portion. Basal margin broadly rounded. Lateral margin slightly gradually widened in anterior half, slightly constricted postmedially, crenulate all along. Curved appressed scale-like seta present between every two crenulae. Pronotal disc with deep circular to ovoid, in part annular (especially in basal third) punctures of irregular size. Pronotal punctures becoming larger and stronger ovoid along later margins of pronotum. Intervening spaces glossy, variably large. Hypomeron separated from prosternum by low carina. Antennal pocket shallow. Punctures of elytral disc double. Ordinary punctures of disc shallow and rather dense, irregular in size and shape. Each ordinary puncture supplemented with shallow linear (narrow and long) incision-shaped puncture. Intervening spaces in part microreticulate, in part glossy, generally larger than ordinary punctures. Setae moderately long, appressed to suberect. Some setae longer and stronger erect, arranged into longitudinal rows. Male protibia with three distal teeth on external margin, two obtuse and distal one acute.
Sexual dimorphism
Female anterolateral angles of labroclypeus less strongly produced anteriad.
Remark
This species’ male genital organs were not studied.
description: Published as part of Telnov, Dmitry, 2020, A revision of the Maechidiini Burmeister, 1855 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from the Indo-Australian transition zone, and the first record of the tribe west of Wallace's Line, pp. 1-210 in European Journal of Taxonomy 721 on pages 49-50, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.721.1127, http://zenodo.org/record/4122118