Serica zhenba 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 zhenba

description: Serica zhenba Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species
Figures 11E–I, 24
Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Zhenba, Shaanxi, 19.VII.1985, 1200m, leg. Li Fasheng / 1144 Asia Sericini spec. ” (CAU).
Description of the holotype. Length: 9.0 mm, length of elytra: 6.5 mm, width: 5.0 mm. Body oval, dark brown, dull, partly with greenish toment, legs reddish brown, elytra yellowish brown with dark spots, in punctures lighter, antenna yellow; dorsal surface with numerous and short, white adpressed setae on pronotum and elytra.
Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, distinctly wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and convergent anteriorly, anterior angles strongly convex; anterior margin distinctly emarginate medially; margins moderately reflexed; surface flat and moderately shiny, finely and densely punctate, with numerous erect setae; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved and slightly elevated; smooth area anterior to eye small and convex, as wide as long; ocular canthus short and slender (1/4 of ocular diameter), impunctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and dense punctures, with numerous fine and short, erect setae. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.55. Antenna with 9 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, 1.5 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and weakly reflexed. Mentum strongly elevated anteriorly, convex. Labrum moderately produced medially, deeply emarginate medially.
Pronotum wide and subtrapezoidal, widest at middle, lateral margins evenly and strongly convex and convergent anteriorly and posteriorly; anterior angles weakly produced and almost rectangular; posterior angles blunt; anterior margin straight, with robust marginal line; surface irregularly densely and finely punctate, along midline narrowly impunctate; with short, pale, adpressed setae, partly with minute setae in punctures; lateral margins sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate at base, weakly produced ventrally. Scutellum large, triangular, finely and densely punctate, with minute setae in punctures, impunctate on median base.
Elytra oval, widest at middle, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, sparse punctures; with a few single, fine, short, white, adpressed setae on all intervals; 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, densely setose; 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/ 1.35. Abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise finely densely punctate and finely shortly setose at middle of sternites, laterally setae less dense; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a membraneous rim being one quarter as long as sternite. Pygidium moderately convex and dull, dark, finely and densely punctate, smooth midline narrow, with sparse, moderately long setae.
Legs slender, shiny, pro- and mesofemur dull; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate between the rows. Metafemur dull, 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, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at middle, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; external face sparsely and finely punctate, with robust longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with three robust setae of which the two distal ones are widely separated; medial face glabrous and impunctate, but with robust longitudinal wrinkles; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally smooth. Metatarsomeres lacking in holotype. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin smooth but bluntly extended at middle; anterior claws asymmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw widened and concavely truncate at apex.
Aedeagus: Fig. 11E–H. Habitus: Fig. 11I. Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Serica zhenba Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species differs from the similar S. nanjiangana Ahrens, 2005 by the longer left paramere being more than half as long as the right paramere, and by the narrower basal lobe of the right paramere.
Etymology. The species is named (noun in apposition) after its type locality, Zhenba, Shaanxi.
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 46-47, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5186.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7073769