Neoserica debasriae Bhunia, Gupta, Chandra & Ahrens 2022, new species
Creators: name: Bhunia, Debika
name: Gupta, Devanshu
name: Chandra, Kailash
name: Ahrens, Dirk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Neoserica
Neoserica debasriae

description: Neoserica debasriae Bhunia, Gupta, Chandra & Ahrens, new species
(Figs. 5–8)
Type locality. India: Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad, Bori Sanctuary, 22.752030N, 77.734490E.
Type material. Holotype, ♂: “ India: Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad, Bori Sanctuary, 22.752030N, 77.734490E, 10.vi.1999, leg. K. Chandra ” (NZSI). Paratypes: 1 ♂ “ India: Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad, Bori Sanctuary, 22.752030N, 77.734490E, 07.vi.1999, leg. K. Chandra ” (NZSI); 1 ♂ “ India: Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad, Bori Sanctuary, 22.752030N, 77.734490E, 10.vi.1999, leg. K. Chandra ” (NZSI); 1 ♂ “ India: Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad, Bori Sanctuary, 22.752030N, 77.734490E, 14.vi.1999, leg. K. Chandra ” (NZSI).
Description of the holotype, male. Body. Length: 5.7 mm, length of elytra: 4.6 mm, width: 4.7 mm. Body oblong-oval; dorsal face dark reddish brown and shiny; ventral face dark reddish-brown, dull; head moderately shiny, surface glabrous, except few single setae.
Head. Labroclypeus trapezoidal, little wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins moderately convex and convergent anteriorly, anterior angles strongly rounded, anteriorly weakly sinuate medially, margins moderately reflexed; surface flat and shiny, densely punctate, glabrous fine punctures mixed with coarse ones each bearing a long erect seta; frontoclypeal suture distinctly incised, flat and distinctly curved medially; smooth area anterior to eye moderately wide, weakly convex, approximately 1.5 times as wide as long. Ocular canthus short and moderately narrow (1/4 of ocular diameter), finely and densely punctate, terminal seta absent. Frons with dense, but fine punctures and with a single, long seta beside eyes. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.75. Antenna with ten antennomeres, club with five antennomeres and weakly reflexed, antennal club short, at maximum 1.2 times as long as remaining five antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and slightly flattened anteriorly. Labrum distinctly produced medially, with a deep median sinuation.
Pronotum moderately transverse, widest at base, lateral margins distinctly convex and weakly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles distinctly produced and slightly rounded at tip, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin convexly produced medially, with a marginal line widely interrupted medially; surface densely and finely punctate, punctures each bearing moderately long, erect setae; setae of anterior and lateral border sparse being twice as long as setae on disc; hypomeron basally distinctly carinate but not produced. Scutellum slender and moderately long, triangular with the apex slightly rounded, with fine, moderately dense punctures, with only minute setae in punctures.
Elytra oblong, widest in posterior third, striae weakly impressed, finely and moderately densely punctate, intervals weakly convex, with sparse, fine punctures concentrated along striae, intervals with a very few fine white setae; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra; epipleura nearly glabrous, apical border with a very fine fringe of microtrichomes.
Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate; metasternum densely covered with long setae on disc, glabrous on sides. Metacoxa glabrous, with a few single setae laterally. Abdominal sternites finely and unevenly densely punctuate, almost glabrous, with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a robust short seta; last abdominal sternite bearing a pair of minute tubercles medially separated from each other by the width of the metatibia.Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur.Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.65. Pygidium weakly convex and dull, coarsely and densely punctate, without smooth midline, with a few semi-erect setae.
Legs slender; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate between the rows. Metafemur dull, anterior margin acute, behind anterior edge without serrated line; posterior margin in apical half ventrally smooth and only weakly widened, posterior margin dorsally weakly serrated, on its basal portion with a few very long setae being subequal to width of metafemur. Metatibia slender and moderately long, widest at apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/ 4.1; dorsal margin sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at one third, apical group at two third of metatibial length, basally without strong setae; lateral face longitudinally convex, very finely and sparsely punctate; ventral margin finely serrated, with three robust setae, with the apical one more widely separated; medial face smooth, apex moderately sinuate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres ventrally with protarsomeres smooth, meso- and metatarsomeres with a few very fine punctures. Metatarsomeres with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally, first metatarsomere a little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and slightly longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia long, bidentate; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw sharply truncate at apex.
Aedeagus. Figs. 5–7.
Habitus. Fig. 8. Female unknown.
Variation. Paratypes in morphology very similar to the holotype. Length: 5.7–5.8 mm, length of elytra: 4.6 mm, width: 4.6–4.7 mm.
Diagnosis. Neoserica debasriae Bhunia, Gupta, Chandra & Ahrens, new species is also part of the Neoserica speciosa group (Ahrens 2004). Neoserica debasriae, new species differs from Neoserica panchmariensis, new species in the shape of the male genitalia: The phallobase is dorsally incised before apex (lateral view), a ventral phallobasal lamina is not present; the right paramere is more twice as long as the phallobase and twice as long as left one, without any dorsal teeth; the left paramere has no distinct basal lobe and is more or less straight (Figs. 5–7).
Etymology. This new species (noun in the genitive case) is dedicated to D.B.’s late mother-in-law, Mrs. Debasri Datta, who has always encouraged her in every aspect of her career. Unfortunately, last year she passed away during Covid pandemic.
Distribution (Fig. 9). Only known from the type locality.
description: Published as part of Bhunia, Debika, Gupta, Devanshu, Chandra, Kailash & Ahrens, Dirk, 2022, New species and records of Sericini of India (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) III, pp. 489-494 in Zootaxa 5200 (2) on pages 491-493, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5200.5.6, http://zenodo.org/record/7271009