Serica (Taiwanoserica) smetanai Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu 2022, new species
Creators: name: Ahrens, Dirk
name: Fabrizi, Silvia
name: Bai, Ming
name: Liu, Wangang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Serica
Serica smetanai

description: Serica (T.) smetanai Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 19A–D, 25
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Taiwan, Kaosuing Hsien, Kuanshan trail at Kaunshanchi Riv. 2400m 20.VII.93 A. Smetana (T158)” (CMNC).
Description of the holotype. Length: 9.4 mm, length of elytra: 7.1 mm, width: 5.4 mm. Body elongate, dark brown, dull, antenna yellow, base and margins of pronotum lighter; dorsal surface almost glabrous except some short, white setae on elytra.
Labroclypeus short, subtrapezoidal, much wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins strongly convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles moderately rounded; anterior margin deeply widely emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface weakly convex and shiny, finely and densely punctate, without wrinkles, with numerous erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly bent medially; smooth area anterior to eye small and convex, 1.2 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and slender (1/4 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and sparse punctures, with a few fine and short, erect setae beside eyes and behind frontoclypeal suture. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.5. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, 1.1 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight. Mentum strongly elevated anteriorly, flattened anteriorly. Labrum moderately produced along middle, weakly emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide and subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins evenly and strongly convex and strongly convergent anteriorly; anterior angles distinctly produced and sharp; posterior angles strongly rounded; anterior margin straight, with robust and complete marginal line; surface finely densely punctate, without smooth midline, with a few single fine pale setae on the sides, otherwise only with minute setae; lateral and anterior margins densely setose; hypomeron carinate at base, moderately produced ventrally. Scutellum small, triangular, finely and irregularly sparsely punctate, with minute setae in punctures.
Elytra elongate, widest at posterior fifth, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, sparse punctures; with a few single, fine, short, adpressed white setae on all intervals; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose (but setae in holotype abraded); apical margin narrowly membraneous, with a fine rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, sparsely setose; metacoxa glabrous, except a few short lateral setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.31. Abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise glabrous; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a wide membraneous rim being a quarter as long as sternite. Pygidium strongly convex and moderately shiny, dark, in punctures yellow, finely and densely punctate, smooth midline narrow, with moderately dense, long and short setae.
Legs slender, shiny, pro- and mesofemur dull; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate between the rows. Metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior edge; ventral posterior margin serrated and only weakly widened at apex, dorsal posterior margin completely serrated, in basal half with a few long setae which are half as long as metafemur width. Metatibia slender and long, widest shortly before apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/4.3, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at middle, apical group at four fifths of metatibial length, basally with a few single, fine setae; external face sparsely and finely punctate, without wrinkles, glabrous; ventral margin serrated, with two widely separated robust setae; medial face finely sparsely punctate, glabrous; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally impunctate. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally and dorsally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and little longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin smooth but bluntly extended at middle; anterior claws asymmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw widened and sharply pointed at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 19A–C. Habitus: Fig. 19D. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica smetanai Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species is in shape of aedeagus most similar to Serica avoata Nomura, 1974. Serica smetanai differs by the more strongly arched dorsal lobes of parameres which are of the same length.
Etymology. The new species is named (substantive in singular genitive case) after its collector, Aleš Smetana.
description: Published as part of Ahrens, Dirk, Fabrizi, Silvia, Bai, Ming & Liu, Wangang, 2022, Taxonomic revision of Serica MacLeay, 1819 (sensu lato) from China and adjacent areas (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), with updates on Nipponoserica Nomura, 1972, pp. 1-83 in Zootaxa 5186 (1) on page 71, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769