Neoserica dharmapriyai Ranasinghe & Eberle & Benjamin & Ahrens 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Ranasinghe, Sasanka
name: Eberle, Jonas
name: Benjamin, Suresh P.
name: Ahrens, Dirk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melolonthidae
Neoserica
Neoserica dharmapriyai

description: Neoserica dharmapriyai sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 5FF85715-9DBB-4148-8B00-6E2B9FE60312
Figs 3 E–I, 5B, 6B
Diagnosis
The new species resembles Neoserica sexfoliata Moser, 1915 in external appearance of the body and in the shape of parameres. Neoserica dharmapriyai sp. nov. may be distinguished from the former by the shorter antennal club being composed of only five antennomeres, and by the shape of parameres: the right paramere is only half as long as the left one, in N. sexfoliata both are subequal in length.
Etymology
The new species is named after Sasanka’s husband Prasanna Dharmapriya for his dedication to this project (species name, noun in the genitive case).
Type material examined
Holotype SRI LANKA • ♂; “ X-SR0035, Sri Lanka, Kegalle District, Pannala, Galdaththa, Aranayake, 7.16154167N, 80.46388889E, 294m, Black light, 03-III-2019, Eberle & Ranasinghe ”; ZFMK.
Description
MEASUREMENTS. Length: 7.5 mm, length of elytra: 5.2 mm, width: 4.5 mm.
HABITUS AND COLORATION. Body oval, reddish brown, antenna pale, labroclypeus shiny, dorsal surface dull, except the dense pilosity on head dorsal surface almost glabrous.
HEAD. Labroclypeus broad and subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins convex and strongly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles including anterior margin strongly rounded, not sinuate medially, all margins strongly reflexed, lateral margins producing a very indistinct angle with the ocular canthus; surface flat, finely and densely punctate, densely erectly setose in coarser punctures mixed with the fine ones; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, not elevated and weakly angled medially; smooth area anterior to eye wide, almost flat, three times as wide as long; ocular canthus long and broad (one third of ocular diameter), coarsely and densely punctate, with a single terminal seta. Frons dull, with fine, moderately dense punctures, with a few erect setae behind the frontoclypeal suture. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.66. Antenna with ten antennomeres; club in male with five antennomeres and straight, 0.8 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and slightly flattened anteriorly.
PRONOTUM. Widely transverse, widest at base, lateral margins in basal half almost straight and slightly convergent anteriorly, in anterior half weakly convex and evenly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles distinctly produced and acute, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin indistinctly produced medially, with a fine and complete marginal line, base of pronotum without marginal line; surface densely and finely punctate, punctures with very minute setae only, otherwise glabrous; lateral and anterior margin densely setose; hypomeron carinate, ventrally slightly produced. Scutellum wide, triangular, at apex moderately pointed, with fine, evenly dense punctures, with only very minute setae.
ELYTRA. Widest at middle, striae finely impressed, finely and moderately densely punctate, intervals weakly convex, with fine and evenly dense punctures, except very minute setae in punctures only a few short setae on lateral odd intervals; epipleural edge robust, ending at strongly curved external apical
angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical border of elytra with a fine rim of microtrichomes (100×).
VENTRAL SURFACE. Dull, coarsely and densely punctate, metepisternum distally impunctate, metasternum sparsely covered with fine, short or very minute setae, metacoxa glabrous, with a few single setae laterally; abdominal sternites finely and densely punctuate, with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a robust seta, the two basal sternites additionally with dense setae beside the row. Mesosternum between mesocoxae 1.5 times as wide as the width of mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.62. Pygidium strongly convex at apex and dull, coarsely and densely punctate, without smooth midline, glabrous except some longer setae along the apical margin.
LEGS. Broad and moderately long; femur with two longitudinal row of setae, finely and sparsely punctate; metafemur dull, behind the posterior longitudinal row of setae punctures finer and slightly denser, anterior margin acute, without serrated line behind anterior edge, posterior margin smooth ventrally, strongly widened, posterior margin finely serrated over its entire length dorsally, with just a few short setae basally. Metatibia wide and flattened, short, widest at middle of metatibial length, ratio of width/ length: 1/ 2.46, sharply carinate dorsally, with two groups of spines, basal group at first third, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few short robust single spines; lateral face weakly longitudinally convex, finely and sparsely punctate, glabrous, smooth along the middle; ventral margin finely serrated, with four robust equidistant setae; medial face smooth and glabrous; apex finely serrated, interiorly near tarsal articulation weakly concavely sinuate. Tarsomeres dorsally smooth and glabrous, neither laterally nor dorsally carinate, ventrally robustly densely setose; metatarsomeres with a strongly serrated ridge and a smooth subventral longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere slightly shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and slightly longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of both claws bluntly truncate at apex.
AEDEAGUS. Fig. 3E – H.
HABITUS. Fig. 3I.
Female
Unknown.
Distribution
See Fig. 5B.
description: Published as part of Ranasinghe, Sasanka, Eberle, Jonas, Benjamin, Suresh P. & Ahrens, Dirk, 2020, New species of Sericini from Sri Lanka (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae), pp. 1-20 in European Journal of Taxonomy 621 on pages 7-8, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.621, http://zenodo.org/record/3750251