Pelidnota nordestina Ferreira, Almeida & Bravo, 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Ferreira, André da Silva
name: Almeida, Lúcia M.
name: Bravo, Freddy
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Pelidnota
Pelidnota nordestina

description: Pelidnota nordestina sp. nov.   
(Figs. 11–13)  
 Diagnosis. Labrum triangular (Fig. 19). Second teeth on the inner margin of mandible larger than first and third (Fig. 23). Second teeth of maxillary galea sawed (Fig. 27). Surface area of pre-mentum excavated and lateral margin of post-mentum slight rounded (Fig. 31). Anteroexternal coxal angle of metacoxa rounded and little acute (Fig. 39). Pygidium dark brown, with reddish reflections on disk, with slight metallic green reflections only on lateral portion of basal margin (Fig.45). Six spine-like setae on the external longitudinal carinae and six setae on the inner longitudinal carinae of metatibia (Fig. 55).   
 Holotype male description. Total length 25.7 mm, width 13.1 mm. Body elongated-oval, slightly convex. Color: Head golden-brown, with black margin. Pronotum, scutellum, and elytra golden-brown and with metallic green reflections. Anterior margin of pronotum and scutellum dark. Pronotum with one and elytra with two lateral black spots. Pygidium dark brown, with reddish reflections in middle, with slight metallic green reflections only on lateral portion of basal margin. Ventral surface and legs of same color as pygidium, and with metallic green reflections. Head: Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club composed by three antennomeres; scape elongated, shorter than antennomeres II–VII. Clypeus trapezoidal, puncture dense and large to moderately large; anterior margin concave. Frontoclypeal suture not evident. Frons width at middle region 2–3 times length of clypeus; punctures moderate to dense and moderately wide. Ocular canthus not reaching the middle of the eye. Interocular distance 3 times the transverse eye diameters. Labrum triangular and transversely elongated (Fig. 19), not fused to clypeus, with medial compression; acuminate anterior margin and posterior convex. Mandibles partially visible in dorsal view, outer margin black, with 2 exposed, recurved, outer teeth; 3 smaller teeth on inner margin, II larger than others; molar robust (Fig. 23). Maxilla with galea bearing 6 teeth, first and second sawed; palp with 4 palpomeres, IV elongated and fusiform (Fig. 27). Labium, mentum with apex concave; post-mentum with elongated dense setae laterally; palp inserted into a lateral cavity in pre-mentum, with 3 palpomeres, III elongate (Fig. 31). Pronotum: Convex. Length 6.3 mm, anterior width 7.6 mm, mean width 11.5 mm, posterior width 11.5 mm. Punctures dense and moderately wide. Anterior margin concave, with anterior angles acute. Posterior margin convex.Lateral margin rounded. Membranous border produced weakly anterior to the anterior marginal bead. Scutellum: Width 0.3 mm, total length 1.0 mm. Punctures moderate and moderately large. Posterior margin rounded. Lacking setae. Elytron: Humeral width 12.9 mm, total length 17.2 mm. Surface smooth (punctures sparse to moderate, and small to moderate, slightly organized longitudinally), lacking setae. Membranous border present at the anterior half. Two dark spots present, one in humerus and other in lateral margin. Apex with punctures moderate and moderately wide. Elytra with dark brown suture and truncate apex (Fig. 35). Venter: Punctures dense and moderately wide. Moderately covered by brown setae. Prosternum elongated in the shape of a tubercle but not extending beyond procoxae. Mesoventrite with anterior process between mesocoxae. Mesoventrite medial area with sparse setae. Legs: Punctures dense. Protibia with dark outer margin and 3 teeth, apical tooth slightly recurved and larger than the other two; inner apical spur present; dorsal longitudinal ridge present and with a row of 8 brown setae (Fig. 43); inner protarsal claw slightly recurved and larger than outer claw (Fig. 49). Metacoxa with posterior projection beyond base of metatrochanter; anteroexternal angle rounded and slightly sharp (Fig. 39). Metafemur flattened medially. Mesotibia with setae moderate on inner surface, spine-like setae sparse on outer surface; apical margin dark, inner margin with two larger spurs interleaved with two smaller spine-like setae, outer margin with 10 smaller spine-like setae. Metatibia with apical margin dark, inner margin with two larger spurs interleaved with two smaller spine-like setae, outer margin with one small spine-like setae; external longitudinal carinae with six spinae-like setae and inner longitudinal carinae with six setae present (Fig.55). Tarsomeres with small ventral tooth, most evident on meso- and metatarsomeres V.Tarsomeres 2–4, with two inner spine-like setae on all legs. Tarsal claws simple. Outer claws of meso- and metatarsus larger than inner claws. Abdomen: Abdominal ventrite convex and punctures moderate to dense, and with sparse setae. Ventrite VI ending before posterior margin of pygidium. Pygidium: (Fig. 45) slightly convex in lateral view. Surface densely striate and with moderately dense setae. Setae whitish, moderately dense. A gradual concavity present on posterior margin. Parameres: (Figs. 61, 62, 67) symmetrical, fused; distal margin V-shaped, gradually acute laterally; proximal margin gradually semi-quadrate.   
 Type material. Holotype male, BRAZIL, Pernambuco: (“ Bonito, Cachoeira Véu da Noiva ”, “ 510 m ”) (8  ◦  32  l  32.4  ll  S/35  ◦  42  l  53.9  ll  W), 25.III.2015. E.M. Menezes col. (MZFS#55726) (MZFS) (Figs. 72–74).   
 Distribution. Known only from type locality.   
 Etymology. The specific epithet nordestina refers to its origin from northeastern Brazil.   
 Remarks. Pelidnota nordestina is distinguished as follows (Pelidnota beckeri characters in brackets): golden-brown with metallic green reflections, especially on the pronotum and ventral surface, and a black spot is present on both sides of pronotum, with two black spots on the elytron (Figs.11, 13) (pronotum and ventral body surface dark brown, with no spots on pronotum but three black spots on elytron (Figs. 1, 3)); labrum triangular (Fig. 19) (transversal (Fig. 17)); inner teeth of mandible more acuminate and larger (Fig. 23) (small (Fig. 21)); first and second teeth of maxillary galea sawed, and IV palpomere more elongated (Fig. 27) (only second teeth sawed, and IV palpomere less longer (Fig. 25)); excavated area on the surface of pre-mentum larger, and lateral margin of post-mentum less rounded and with elongated dense setae (Fig.31) (excavated area small, lateral margin more rounded, and with moderate setae (Fig. 29)); anteroexternal angle of metacoxa rounded and slightly sharp (Fig. 39) (acute (Fig. 37)); protarsal tubercle of male located more on the claw apex (Fig. 49) (located not so on the claw apex (Fig. 47)); external surface of metatibia less punctuated, and inner longitudinal carinae with six setae (Fig. 55) (more punctuated and with more than six setae (Fig. 53)); shapes of the parameres distal margin, any less acute laterally (Figs. 61, 67) (apex more acute (Figs. 57, 65).   
 Comments. The specimen was collected in a tropical forest in an enclave in the Caatinga ecoregion (Instituto LIFE, 2015).
description: Published as part of Ferreira, André da Silva, Almeida, Lúcia M. & Bravo, Freddy, 2017, Three new species of Pelidnota MacLeay (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Rutelinae) and new distributional records from northeast Brazil, pp. 208-223 in Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 61 (3) on pages 211-212, DOI: 10.1016/j.rbe.2017.04.004, http://zenodo.org/record/13195489