Cyphochilus tenzingyatsoi Sabatinelli 2020, n. sp.
Creators: name: Sabatinelli, Guido
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Cyphochilus
Cyphochilus tenzingyatsoi

description: Cyphochilus tenzingyatsoi n. sp.
Figs 29-31
Holotype: MHNG (MHNG-ENTO-81687); 1 ♂; TIBET: // CHINA, E. Tibet, 2050-2400 m / N of Brahmaputra great bend / 30˚00˚-07˚ - 94˚22˚- 95˚09˚ [sic] / 16-20.VII.1992, L. & R. Businsky leg. // HOLOTYPUS ♂ / Cyphochilus / tenzingyatsoi mihi / G. Sabatinelli, 2020 (T on red) //.
Paratypes: 8 specimens.
CHINA, TIBET: MHNG; 1♂, 1 ♀; same data as holotype. – NMPC; 1 ♂, 1 ♀; same data as holotype; ex coll. D. Král. – PCMN; 2 ♀; CHINA, SE Tibet, Tome-Bomê, 3600 m; 3.VII.1996, leg. V. Paulus. – PCAB; 1 ♂; East Tibet, Tomi (Tangmai), 30 km W. of Donjung, 16.V.2005; 2075 m; leg. A. Wrzecionko. – PCAB; 1 ♂; same data as previous.
Description of the holotype male: Size – BL: 24.3 mm, BW: 10 mm, BWX: 13 mm, situated at midpoint of elytra. Color – Integument dark shiny brown except for brown-reddish antennal clubs, other appendices and legs; dorsal surface with white scales densely aggregated along the sides of pronotum and margins of elytra. Head – CW/L: 3.1; anterolateral edges of clypeus rounded, lateral edges of clypeus straight and subparallel; frons large, making eyes relatively small, not prominent (F/O: 3.1); antennal club shorter than antennomeres 2-7 (A2-7/CL: 1.1). Pronotum – Transverse (PnW/L: 2.1), strongly convex; apical angles and lateral margins flattened, slightly acute and not protuberant; basal lateral margins convex, basal angles largely rounded. Elytra – Without any visible striae. Thoracic sterna – Surface with short, white pubescence and scattered scales; mesosternum strongly developed anteriorly (MstL: 1.65 mm) between the mesocoxae. Abdomen – Sternites with sparse scales except the median part of the eight sternite; pygidium convex with apical margin reflected. Legs – Protibia tridentate with the basal tooth small; slender apical tooth much longer than the middle tooth. Aedeagus – Parameres strongly asymmetric; left paramere with a long ventral process that wrap the right one, like in C. gandhii; apex of the right paramere concave and with a straight margin (Figs 29-31).
Variability: BL: 23.5-25 mm.
Females: BL: 25 mm; antennal club ovate, shorter than preceding antennomeres 2-7 (A2-7/CL: 1.9).
Etymology: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama, was the recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize for his activity in Tibet, from where the new species is described.
Type locality: The specimens were collected during two Czech expeditions in the Bomê County of Nyingchi City in the southeastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
Distribution: Cyphochilus tenzingyatsoi is at present known only from two collection sites in the montane areas of southeastern Tibet.
Remarks: This species can be readily separated from all other congeners by its: large body size, elytral striae not elevated, mesosternum armed with a long spur and for the unique shape of the parameres. The morphologically closest species is C. gandhii from which it is easily distinguishable by having antennal club shorter than antennomeres 2-7 and the apex of the right paramere concave and with straight apical margin (Figs 29 vs. 23).
Section 1b
Species with mesosternum armed with a short spur, length in lateral view 0.2-0.6 mm (Fig. 17).
description: Published as part of Sabatinelli, Guido, 2020, Taxonomic notes on the genus Cyphochilus Waterhouse, 1867 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea, Melolonthinae) with description of 10 new species, pp. 157-181 in Revue suisse de Zoologie 127 (1) on page 168, DOI: 10.35929/RSZ.0014, http://zenodo.org/record/5743429