Serica (Taiwanoserica) taishun 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 taishun

description: Serica (T.) taishun Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 17F–I, 25
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Mt. Wuyanling, Taishun, Zhejiang, 3.VIII. 2005, 650m, leg. Wang Zhiliang/ LW-120/ 1149 Asia Sericini spec. ” (CAU).
Description of the holotype. Length: 8.2 mm, length of elytra: 6.1 mm, width: 4.9 mm. Body oval, dark reddish brown, dull, elytra with yellow spots, antenna yellow; dorsal surface almost glabrous except some single and short, white setae on pronotum and elytra.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, little wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins strongly convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles sharp; anterior margin narrowly and deeply emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface weakly convex and moderately shiny, finely and densely punctate, with transverse wrinkles and numerous fine and erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly bent medially; smooth area anterior to eye small and convex, 1.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus moderately short and slender (1/3 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and dense punctures, with numerous fine and short as well as a few longer, posteriorly bent setae. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.55. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, little shorter than remaining antennomeres combined and straight. Mentum strongly elevated anteriorly, flattened anteriorly. Labrum strongly produced along middle, narrowly and deeply emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide and subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins evenly convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles weakly produced, sharp; posterior angles moderately rounded; anterior margin straight, marginal broad but medially widely incomplete; surface irregularly, densely and finely punctate, with minute setae in punctures and a few pale adpressed setae on disc; anterior and lateral margins densely setose; hypomeron carinate at base, weakly produced ventrally. Scutellum moderately large, triangular, finely and densely punctate, with minute setae in punctures, at median base impunctate.
Elytra oval, widest at posterior third, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, sparse punctures; with a few single, short, white setae on all intervals, otherwise with minute white setae in punctures; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical margin narrowly membraneous, with a fine rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, sparsely setose, widely glabrous; 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/ 1.3. Abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise glabrous; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a wide membraneous rim being one third as long as sternite. Pygidium strongly convex and dull, dark, midline impunctate, finely and densely punctate, with sparse, short 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: 1/4.1; dorsal margin sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at basal third, apical group at two thirds of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; external face sparsely and finely punctate, without longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with two widely separated robust setae; medial face finely sparsely punctate, glabrous; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally finely and moderately densely punctate. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally and dorsally weakly carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and distinctly longer than 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 sharply pointed at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 17F–H. Habitus: Fig. 17I. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica taishun Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from Serica silviae Ahrens, 2009 by the absent longer, distally directed dorsal lobe of the left paramere, and in having the dorsal lobe of the right paramere more robust than the ventral one (it is the opposite in S. silviae).
Etymology. The species is named (noun in apposition) after its occurrence close to the city Taishun (Zhejiang).
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 67-68, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769