Maechidius hirtipes Arrow 1941
Creators: name: Telnov, Dmitry
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Maechidius
Maechidius hirtipes

description: Maechidius hirtipes Arrow, 1941
Figs 44, 123, 217, 268, 307, 381, 436, 474, 545, 620–622
Type material Lectotype [herewith designated]
PAPUA NEW GUINEA • ♂; “ Type [p, label circular, red frame] // SYNTYPE [p, label circular, blue frame] // ♂ [p]// N.E. NEW GUINEA: Saiko, 5,500-6,000 ft. Bubu River. (Upper Waria River.) Sept.- Oct. 1936. [p] // F.Shaw-Mayer. B.M. 1937-350. [p] // Maechidius hirtipes, type. Arrow [h]”; BMNH.
Remarks
Arrow (1941: 453) based his description on two male specimens. Only one was found at BMNH with Arrow’s type label and is herewith designated as lectotype in order to enhance the stability of nomenclature and fix the specimen I based my redescription on, in case the 2 nd syntype is found and turns out to be a different species from M. hirtipes in this sense.
Description
Male labroclypeus (Fig. 123) broadly deeply emarginate anteriorly, its lateral margins strongly sinuous in both dorsal and lateral views. Anterolateral angles broadly rounded, strongly protruding. Canthus broadly rounded in dorsal view. Punctures of frons of irregular circular to hexagonal shape, intervening spaces glossy and variably large, in part wrinkled. Background of punctures in part covered with dense microscopical velvety pubescence. Setae very inconspicuous, generally not surpassing length of corresponding punctures. Pronotum transverse, flattened dorsally, glossy to subopaque dorsally and laterally. Anterior margin of pronotum broadly emarginate with slightly protruding anterolateral angles. Basal margin of pronotum slightly sinuous. Lateral margin of pronotum nearly straight, indistinctly gradually widened towards postmedium, strongly constricted in basal third, denticulate all along (Fig. 217). An inconspicuous seta present between each two denticles. Hypomeron separated from prosternum by moderately high nearly straight carina which is strongly acutely dentate medially, with long delicate setae on its anterolateral margin (Fig. 268). Antennal pocket shallow. Pronotal disc with dense and deep irregularly shaped (ovoid to hexagonal) punctures variably large; inner margin of each puncture with delicate membrane. Intervening spaces glossy, smaller than punctures, in part wrinkled. Setae very inconspicuous. Punctures of elytral disc sinuous, long and narrow, incision-shaped, dense (Fig. 307). Intervening spaces wrinkled, glossy to subopaque, generally larger than incision-shaped punctures. Elytral setae inconspicuous, appressed, about as long as corresponding incision-shaped punctures. Some longer suberect setae arranged in 4 longitudinal irregular rows on each elytron. Male pygidium with large shallow annular punctures, intervening spaces much smaller than those (Fig. 474). Setae of pygidium rather long and suberect in distal part, much shorter and inconspicuous on anterior part of pygidium. Male protibia with complete dorsal groove and three distal teeth of distal margin (Fig. 381). Male basal metatarsomere leaf-like, flat and slightly convex dorsally, with a brush of long dense setae on either lateroventral margin (Fig. 436). Spiculum gastrale as in Fig. 545. Aedeagus as in Figs 620–622.
description: Published as part of Telnov, Dmitry, 2020, A revision of the Maechidiini Burmeister, 1855 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from the Indo-Australian transition zone, and the first record of the tribe west of Wallace's Line, pp. 1-210 in European Journal of Taxonomy 721 on page 54, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.721.1127, http://zenodo.org/record/4122118