Serica jani 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 jani

description: Serica jani Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 10A–D, 24
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ China: Zhejiang Prov., W Tiammu Shan (Mts.) reserve Immortal Peak; mountainous low forest, esp. On flowering Castanea sequini, 5.-6.vii.2017, 1500 m, 30°20’58.5’’N, 119°25’26.5’’E J. Hájek & J. Růžička leg./ 1059 Asia Sericini spec. ” (NMPC). Paratypes: 1 ♂ “23.III.35 O. Piel / T’iemmu Shan Musée Heude/ Serica / Pachyserica sp 22” (IZAS), 1 ♂ “ Mt. Sha hu shan, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 1957.VI.30 / Pachyserica sp 20” (IZAS), 1 ♂ “ Mt. Bao shi, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 1957.VI. 4 ” (IZAS).
Description of the holotype. Length: 8.8 mm, length of elytra: 6.5 mm, width: 4.9 mm. Body elongate, dark brown, dull, partly with greenish toment, elytra in punctures reddish brown, antenna and legs reddish brown; dorsal surface almost glabrous except a single and short, white adpressed setae on pronotum and elytra.
Labroclypeus subrectangular, little wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and convergent anteriorly, anterior angles moderately convex; anterior margin weakly emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface flat and moderately shiny, finely and densely punctate, partly punctures fusing to transverse wrinkles, with a few erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved; smooth area anterior to eye small and flat, 1.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus very short and slender (1/6 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and dense punctures, with numerous fine and short, erect setae. Eyes large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.79. Antenna with 9 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, 1.3 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and weakly reflexed. Mentum strongly elevated anteriorly, convex. Labrum weakly produced along middle, moderately emarginate medially.
Pronotum transverse and subrectangular, widest in posterior third, lateral margins evenly weakly convex and convergent anteriorly as well posteriorly; anterior angles weakly produced and blunt, moderately rounded in the tip; posterior angles moderately rounded; anterior margin with robust marginal line and strongly produced medially; surface densely and finely punctate, along midline narrowly impunctate, with short or minute, pale, adpressed setae in punctures; lateral margins sparsely setose; hypomeron not carinate at base. Scutellum large, triangular, slightly impressed on each side, finely and densely punctate, on basal midline smooth, with minute setae in punctures.
Elytra oval, widest in posterior third, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, moderately dense punctures concentrated along striae; with a few single, fine, short, white, adpressed setae on all intervals; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical margin chitinous, without a rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, metasternal disc densely 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/ 1.25. Abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise finely and shortly setose and finely densely punctate; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a wide membraneous rim being one third as long as sternite. Pygidium strongly convex and dull, dark, in punctures yellow, finely and densely punctate, smooth midline narrow, with sparse short, mostly adpressed 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: 1/3.6, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at middle, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; external face sparsely and finely punctate, with robust longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with three robust setae of which the two distal ones are widely separated; medial face glabrous and impunctate, but with robust longitudinal wrinkles; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally smooth. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally and dorsally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere as long as following two tarsomeres combined and twice as long as 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 concavely truncate at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 12A–C. Habitus: Fig. 12D. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica jani Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species strongly resembles the species of the subgenus Serica sharing the lacking carina of basal hypomeron and the asymmetric protarsal claws. Both characters are known to have been developed convergently several times within some groups, so more evidence is needed for the proper assignment of this species. Serica jani differs from the species of the subgenus Serica by the short, robust, and strongly arched phallobase (lateral view) which in this form is unknown in the subgenus Serica. The species of the latter do have a dorsoventrally flattened phallobase.
Etymology. The species is named (noun in singular genitive case) after one of its collectors Jan Růžička (Prague).
Variation. Length: 8.8–10.0 mm, length of elytra: 6.5–7.6 mm, width: 4.9–5.9 mm.
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 pages 42-44, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769