Serica huangbaiyuanensis 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 huangbaiyuanensis

description: Serica huangbaiyuanensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 8I–L, 23
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Shaanxi Huangbaiyuan 2012-VI-17 / LW-1034” (ZFMK).
Description of the holotype. Length: 7.4 mm, elytral length: 5.7 mm, width: 4.5 mm. Body oblong, reddish brown, dull, legs brown, antenna yellow, dorsal surface covered with dense erect and moderately long setae.
Labroclypeus wide, subrectangular, lateral margins weakly convex and weakly convergent, producing a blunt angle with ocular canthus; anterior angles strongly convex; anterior margin shallowly emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface weakly convex, finely and densely punctate, with numerous long and erect setae; frontoclypeal suture distinct, moderately curved; ocular canthus moderately long and narrow (1/3 of ocular width), finely punctate, without terminal seta. Frons with dull toment, with fine, moderately dense punctures, anteriorly and beside eyes with a few long setae. Antenna with nine antennomeres, club with three antennomeres, three times as long as remaining antennomeres combined, distinctly reflexed; antennomeres 4 to 6 short and transverse. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.7. Mentum convexly elevated and flattened anteriorly.
Pronotum moderately wide, widest at base, lateral margins evenly modertely convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles almost blunt, weakly produced, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin weakly convex, marginal line fine but complete; basal margin without marginal line; surface with coarse, dense punctures and moderately dense erect setae, partly in punctures with minute adpressed, fine setae. Hypomeron carinate ventrally, not produced ventrally. Scutellum narrow and long, triangular, with coarse, very dense punctation and short adpressed setae, basally with a triangular smooth area.
Elytra elongate and narrow, widest in posterior third; striae distinctly impressed, finely punctate; intervals weakly convex, coarsely and densely almost evenly punctate; with moderately dense, erect setae, which are dense on lateral intervals, partly with ninute adpressed setae in punctures; epipleural margin robust, ending at strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra, sparsely setose; apex of elytra with a very fine membraneous rim of short microtrichomes.
Ventral face finely and densely punctate, with short and dense setae. Metacoxae glabrous, only laterally with a few longer setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.44. Abdominal sternites finely and moderately densely punctate, each with a row of coarse punctures bearing each a robust seta, otherwise with short fine setae in punctures. Pygidium almost flat, finely and densely punctate, with dense, long setae.
Legs long and narrow, shiny; femora finely and sparsely punctate, with two longitudinal rows of setae. Metafemur with anterior margin acute, without adjacent serrated line; posterior ventral margin almost straight, weakly widened in apical half, ventrally and dorsally not serrated, sparsely setose. Metatibia moderately long and narrow, widest at apex, ratio width/ length: 1/ 3.5, sharply carinate dorsally, with three groups of spines, basal one shortly before the middle, medium one at two thirds, apical one at four fifths of metatibial length, basally and along a longitudinal blunt carina beside the dorsal margin with a number of short, robust, single setae; lateral face almost flat, coarsely and densely punctate, with a few short setae; apex shallowly concavely truncate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres finely punctate dorsally, with moderately dense, fine setae ventrally; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated carina, subventrally with a second, smooth longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and little shorter than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate; anterior claws symmetric, interior tarsal claws sharply pointed.
Aedeagus: Fig. 8I–K. Habitus: Fig. 8L. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica huangbaiyuanensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from the other setose species of the Serica lupina group by the shorter legs, and by the basal lobe of right paramere.
Etymology. The name of the new species (adjective in nominative case) is derived from the type locality, Huangbaiyuan.
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 38-39, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769