Melandrya (Melandrya) helotoides Yang & Liu 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yang, Shulin
name: Liu, Jie
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melandryidae
Melandrya
Melandrya helotoides

description: Melandrya (Melandrya) helotoides sp. nov.
DZmĸ朽木*
(Figures 1a–d)
Holotype: ♂ (GZNULS), China: Guizhou Province, Leishan County, Leigongshan National Nature Reserve, 8 km from Leishan City to Fangxiang Village, E108°12.026’, N26°22.429’, 02. VI. 2017. Leg. Shulin Yang.
Male. Body (Fig. 1a, b, c) length 11.4 mm (anterior margin of the epistoma to the apices of elytra), width 3.56 mm (widest at apical 1/3 of elytra); oblong, surface glossy, densely punctate, and with long pale setae; punctures on the venter finer than those on the dorsal surface.
Head. Black; length and width subequal; labrum brown, transverse, lateral margins rounded; terminal maxillary palpomere enlarged, subtriangular, ratio of palpomeres 2, 3 and 4 about 1:0.4:1; epistoma transverse, yellow; eyes large, slightly emarginate anteriorly, interocular distance about 0.7 ×width of head across eyes; vertex coarsely punctate with long, sparse golden setae, slightly raised, with a weakly concave margin anteriorly between antennal insertions; antennae short, apical half of pedicel and antennomere 11 yellowish orange, scape slightly swollen apically, pedicel shortest and nearly as long as wide, antennomeres 3–10 slightly biserrate, gradually becoming shorter, antennomere 11 fusiform, ratios of antennomeres 1:0.4:1.4:1.1:1.0:0.98:0.96:0.94:0.92:0.90:1.3.
Thorax. Pronotum 1.94 mm long, 2.4 mm wide at base, 1.4 mm at apical margin, widest at basal 1/6; approximately trapezoidal at apical half and nearly parallel sided posteriorly, slightly constricted at base; base slightly emarginate mesally, slightly bisinuate at basal margins of each half; color black with bilateral longitudinal orange stripe starting immediately after apical margin of pronotum, slightly curving towards middle and becoming slightly wider posteriorly; pronotum depressed longitudinally near basal margin at the middle of each half; thoracic venter reddish-brown in general, darker to nearly black in parts of mesepisternum, mesocoxa and metaventrite.
Scutellum slightly raised, orange, subquadrate, rounded apically, with dense yellow setae.
Elytra dark brown to black, elongate, covering abdomen, slightly wider than pronotum at humeri, gradually becoming wider posteriorly to 2/3 of their length and then tapering towards apices, each rounded apically; each elytron with three raised, subglabrous, oval pale yellowish-orange spots, one at the middle of basal 1/3, two smaller ones obliquely arranged at apical 1/3 of elytron; elytral punctures presenting striae on mesial part of each elytron, five well defined striae on the dorsal and four less distinct striae at lateral on mesial elytron between the three elytral spots, striae not well arranged before the front elytral spot and behind the two back elytral spots; each elytron with a narrow sutural light orange stripe after scutellum at basal 1/5 and a subquadrate yellow patch at apical 1/6.
Legs slender, densely punctate and covered with dense pubescence; coxae and basal 5/6 of femora yellowish orange; apical 1/6 of femora, tibiae and tarsomeres 1–3 black, tarsomeres 4–5 and pretarsi dark orange.
Abdomen. Ventrites yellowish brown, darker to nearly black in middle of 1 st ventrite and 2 nd ventrite, 5 th ventrite nearly black except small orange areas; 5 th ventrite obtusely emarginate apically.
Genitalia (Fig. 1d). Aedeagus elongate, length about 5 ×width.
Female. Unknown.
Diagnosis.
Melandrya (Melandrya) helotoides sp. nov. differs from its congeners by its uniquely raised yellowish-orange elytral spots, resembling those of helotids. This elytral feature was previously unknown in Melandryidae.
Etymology.
The specific name of this species is derived from the yellowish-orange elytral spots similar to many species of Helotidae.
description: Published as part of Yang, Shulin & Liu, Jie, 2024, An unusual new species of Melandrya Fabricius, 1801 (Coleoptera: Melandryidae) with new distributional notes for two additional Melandrya from Southwest China, pp. 140-144 in Zootaxa 5447 (1) on pages 141-142, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5447.1.10, http://zenodo.org/record/11119110