Eurypeza aurora Sehnal 2017, new species
Creators: name: Sehnal, Richard
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Eurypeza
Eurypeza aurora

description: Eurypeza aurora Sehnal, new species (Figs. 1A–H)
Type locality. Kenya, Nairobi Region, Salama.
Type material. Holotype (male): “ KENYA, Nairobi, | Salama env. | 25.xi. 1999 | M. Snížek leg. [printed] || RSCV | Richard SEHNAL | collection | Velenice | Czech Republic [printed]”. Holotype is deposited in The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom (Maxwell V. L. Barclay).
Description of holotype. Body length 9.4 mm, elongate, almost parallel-sided, gently convex. Dorsal and ventral surface matte, distal part of the head rusty brown, proximal part black, pronotum and elytra black (Figs. 1A–B). Dorsal surface of head densely covered with stiff macrosetae; pronotum and scutellum covered with fine, short, recumbent macrosetae intermixed with long, semierect macrosetae; elytra covered with sparse, short, recumbent macrosetae. Ventral surface of thorax and abdomen with long, whitish-yellow, recumbent macrosetae. Head appendages and legs covered with reddish-brown, moderately short macrosetae.
Head with labrum transverse, shallowly bilobed; lobes rounded, irregularly and weakly punctate, covered with long, erect macrosetae. Head including clypeus and frons strongly wrinkled; densely, coarsely punctate; each puncture with an erect macroseta 5x as long as puncture diameter. Convex frontoclypeal carina sinuate forward. Occiput sparsely, evenly, moderately punctate. Ocular canthus narrow, short, covered with long, erect macrosetae. Eye extending beyond canthus (Figs. 1G–H). Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with 5 antennomeres, almost straight, same length as antennal shaft (antennomeres 2–5 combined) (Fig. 1G). Antennomeres 1–5 with sparse, long macrosetae; club sparsely, shortly macrosetaceous. Terminal maxillary palpomere expanded near midlength, club-shaped, shorter than palpomeres 2 and 3 combined.
Pronotum transverse, widest behind midlength, with shallow anterolateral wrinkles. Lateral margins non-crenulate and macrosetaceous. Base bordered, medially gently arched toward elytra, with smooth margin paralleled by a row of fine punctures and hind angles broadly rounded. Disc gently punctate, with macrosetae 5x as long as puncture diameters; punctures separated by 4x their diameters. Punctation of remaining surface same, macrosetae yellowish white, semirecumbent (Figs. 1A–B, G).
Scutellum large, almost equilaterally triangular, only sides and apex rounded; punctation irregular, each puncture bearing a white, semirecumbent macrosetae 5x longer than puncture diameter.
Elytra weakly convex, posteriorly widening, apically broadly rounded; apical angle approximately rectangular. Striae present but feeble. Humeral umbones present, weakly swollen. Surface not microsculptured (at 40x magnification), matte; punctures shallow, regularly spaced, separated by 1– 3x their diameters. Some punctures bearing a yellowishwhite, semirecumbent macroseta shorter than puncture diameter. Epipleuron distinct, complete, wide, laterally covered with short, erect macrosetae and long, semirecumbent hairlike macrosetae (Fig. 1B).
Macropterous. Legs with femora narrow, shiny, irregularly punctate, macrosetaceous. Protibia narrow, distinctly bidentate, proximal tooth pronounced. Protarsomeres 1–4 and mesotarsomeres 1–4 broadened and ventrally macrosetaceous, protarsomere 5 and mesotarsomere 5 simple (Figs. 1A–C). Mesotibia and metatibia slightly expanded distally; each with one incomplete, longitudinal, macrosetiferous carina. Metatibial carina weak. Upper terminal spine of metatibia longer than lower spine, both spines apically pointed. Claws bifid, with ventrobasal teeth (Fig. 1A).
Ventral surface covered by yellowish-white, recumbent macrosetae. Pygidium slightly transverse, convex, completely bordered, apically broadly rounded, irregularly covered by fine, setose punctures.
Male genitalia (Figs. 1E–F). Parameres symmetrical, as long as phallobase; gently curved; each half of the paramere with apex rotated toward base, together forming a hook.
Sexual dimorphism. Female unknown.
Geographic distribution. The species is known from the type locality only.
Differential diagnosis. Eurypeza aurora new species is the second representative of the genus Eurypeza. From the only previously described species, E. evansi, it can be differentiated using the following characters: uniformly matte black color, clypeus and frons densely covered with stiff macrosetae, antennal shaft the same length as club, aedeagus morphology (Figs. 1C–D).
Etymology. Named after the Morning star (= Aurora in Latin), for the moment of realization that the specimen studied was a new species. This name should be treated as a noun in apposition.
description: Published as part of Sehnal, Richard, 2017, A new species of Eurypeza Lacroix, 2006 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Tanyproctini) from Kenya in Zootaxa 4337 (2), DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4337.2.9, http://zenodo.org/record/1018822