Maladera reyaensis Bhunia, Gupta, Chandra & Ahrens 2021, new species
Creators: name: Bhunia, Debika
name: Gupta, Devanshu
name: Chandra, Kailash
name: Ahrens, Dirk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Maladera
Maladera reyaensis

description: Maladera reyaensis Bhunia, Gupta, Chandra & Ahrens, new species
(Figs. 5–8)
Type locality. India: West Bengal, Darjeeling, Reya, 27.039490 N, 88.263910 E.
Type material. Holotype, ♂: “ India: West Bengal, Darjeeling, Reya, 27.039490 N, 88.263910 E.” (NZSI). Paratypes: 2 ♂♂ “ India: West Bengal, Darjeeling, Reya, 27.039490 N, 88.263910 E.” (NZSI). The specimens bear a red printed label: “ Maladera reyaensis sp. n., HOLOTYPE or PARATYPE, Debika Bhunia, Devanshu Gupta, Dirk Ahrens & Kailash Chandra, Det. 2021”.
Description of holotype. Body. Length: 10.2 mm, length of elytra: 7.7 mm, width: 6.5 mm. Body oblong–oval; dorsal face dark brown; ventral face dark reddish-brown dull; antenna yellowish, dull, labroclypeus shiny, with numerous long setae on head, pronotum and elytra.
Head. Labroclypeus short, wide and subrectangular, widest at base, lateral margins nearly straight and subparallel, slightly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles strongly rounded, anterior margin straight, margins strongly reflexed; lateral margin and ocular canthus produce an indistinct angle; surface convexly elevated medially, finely, densely punctate, with a few erect, long setae; frontoclypeal suture distinctly incised and elevated, angled medially; smooth area anterior to eye convex, twice as wide as long; ocular canthus short and narrow (1/3 of ocular diameter), finely densely punctate, with a terminal seta. Frons dull, with dense, fine punctures, with a few single setae beside eyes and behind frontoclypeal suture. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.79. Antenna with ten antennomeres; club with three antennomeres and straight, slightly longer than remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and slightly flattened anteriorly.
Pronotum moderately transverse, widest shortly behind middle, lateral margins moderately evenly convex and convergent anteriorly as well as posteriorly, anterior angles distinctly produced and sharp, posterior angles blunt, slightly rounded at tip; anterior margin straight, with fine marginal line, base without marginal line; surface moderately densely and finely punctate, with minute setae in punctures and numerous long semi–erect setae; anterior and lateral margin finely sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate, not produced ventrally.
Scutellum wide, triangular, with fine, moderately dense punctures, impunctate on midline.
Elytra widest at middle, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals slightly convex, with fine, moderately dense punctures concentrated along striae and with minute setae in punctures; epipleural edge robust, ending at convexly rounded external apical angle of elytra, epipleura sparsely setose; apical border of elytra membraneous, with a very fine rim of microtrichomes.
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, nearly glabrous, metasternal disc sparsely covered with fine short setae; metacoxa with a few longer setae laterally. Abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate, punctures with minute setae, each sternite with a transverse row of punctures, each bearing a fine seta. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.81. Pygidium moderately convex, dull, coarsely and densely punctate, without a narrow smooth midline, with numerous long setae along apical margin.
Legs short and wide, dull; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate. Anterior margin of metafemur acute, without adjacent serrated line, anterior row of setae complete; posterior ventral margin smooth, moderately widened at ventral apex, dorsal posterior edge smooth, neither serrate, glabrous. Metatibia short and wide, widest at middle, ratio of width/length: 1/2.45, sharply carinate dorsally, with two groups of spines, basal group shortly behind middle, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, in basal half with a few short single setae subparallel to dorsal margin; lateral face longitudinally convex, superficially and sparsely punctate, along midline broadly smooth, with minute setae in punctures; ventral margin finely serrate, with four equidistant robust setae; medial face smooth and glabrous; apex finely serrate, shallowly sinuate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres dorsally impunctate, glabrous, neither laterally nor dorsally carinate, moderately setose ventrally; metatarsomeres with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally and a smooth subventral longitudinal carina, glabrous; first metatarsomere slightly shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and slightly longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of both claws bluntly truncate at apex.
Aedeagus: Figs. 5–7. Habitus: Fig. 8. Female unknown.
Etymology. The name (adjective in the nominative singular) refers to the type locality, Reya, West Bengal (India).
Distribution (Fig. 13). Only known from the type locality.
Diagnosis. Maladera reyaensis new species is very similar to M. subspinosa Brenske, 1898, in the shape of the male genitalia and its external morphology. Maladera reyaensis new species differs from M. subspinosa by the glabrous pronotum, as well as the shape of the parameres: in the new species the right paramere is strongly elongated and bent before the apex and concavely sinuate (Figs. 5–7).
description: Published as part of Bhunia, Debika, Gupta, Devanshu, Chandra, Kailash & Ahrens, Dirk, 2021, New species and records of Sericini of India (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae Melolonthinae) II., pp. 594-600 in Zootaxa 5081 (4) on pages 596-597, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5081.4.10, http://zenodo.org/record/5778762