Maladera deenstana 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 deenstana

description: Maladera deenstana sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 054FA7C8-DD22-49C4-8C43-B41E610ADDF6
Figs 6E–H, 7J, 8I
Diagnosis
Maladera deenstana sp. nov. is in external shape and shape of aedeagus similar to M. weligamana (Brenske, 1898). The new species differs from M. weligamana by the mesally more compressed aedeagus and having the distal part less narrowed towards apex (all lateral view); the apical part is less narrowed a quarter before apex than in M. weligamana (dorsal view).
Etymology
The new species is named after its type locality ‘Deenston’ (adjective in the nominative singular).
Type material
Holotype SRI LANKA • ♂; “ X-SR0187, Sri Lanka, Kandy District, Deenston, Knuckles South; 7.330824ºN, 80.862032ºE; 1108m; 20-II-2019; Eberle and Ranasinghe leg.; Black light ”; ZFMK.
Description
MEASUREMENTS. Length: 8.2 mm, length of elytra: 6.1 mm, width: 4.9 mm.
HABITUS (Fig. 6H) AND COLOURATION. Body oval, dark brown, antenna yellow, dorsal surface dull, densely minutely setose, elytra with moderately dense, short setae.
HEAD. Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, distinctly 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, anteriorly distinctly emarginate medially; surface shiny, convexly elevated medially, finely and densely punctate, distance between punctures equal their diameter, with a few erect setae; frontoclypeal suture fine and weakly angled medially; smooth area in front of eye approximately twice as wide as long; ocular canthus short and narrow, finely and densely punctate, with a single short terminal seta. Frons dull, with fine, irregularly sparse punctures, with a few longer, adpressed setae on disc and beside eyes. Eyes moderately large, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.66. Antenna yellow, with ten antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, little shorter than remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and anteriorly flattened.
PRONOTUM. Moderately wide, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and evenly narrowed anteriorly, anterior angles moderately produced and moderately sharp, anterior marginal line fine and complete, anterior margin weakly produced medially; surface finely and densely punctate, with minute 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 impunctate.
ELYTRA. Short oval, widest at posterior third, striae indistinctly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals flat, with fine, dense punctures, with minute setae in punctures and a few moderately dense, short setae on lateral intervals and posterior half; 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 minutely 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: 1/2.0. Pygidium lacking in holotype.
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: 1/2.9, 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; lateral face longitudinal convex, with sparse, fine punctures and with minute 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 impunctate and glabrous dorsally, ventrally with sparse, short setae; metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, with a strongly serrated ridge, beside which is 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. 6E–G.
Female
Unknown.
Distribution
See Fig. 7J.
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 85-88, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.821.1799, http://zenodo.org/record/6595468