Pristerophora rothmanni Mondaca, 2024

Mondaca, José, 2024, A new species of Pristerophora Harold, 1869 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from Chile, Zootaxa 5433 (4), pp. 588-594 : 589-592

Pristerophora rothmanni Mondaca , new species

( Figs. 1–5 , 9–10 )

Type locality. Chile, Llanquihue Province , Río Blanco .

Type material. Holotype male labeled: a) “RIO BLANCO / PR. LLANQUI- / HUE. CHILE / 26.XII.1993, lg. / G. ARRIAGADA”; b) “COLECCIÓN / V.M. DIÉGUEZ M.”; c) “Holotype / Pristerophora rothmanni sp. nov. / Desc. J. Mondaca E. 2024” (red label, typeset) ( MNNC) . Paratypes (8): 1 female, a) same data as holotype; b) “Paratype / Pristerophora rothmanni sp. nov. / Desc. J. Mondaca E. 2024” (yellow label, typeset) ( VMDC) . 1 male, a) “ Chile, PTO. MONTT / volcán Calbuco / 4-XI-2004 / col. C. Fortino ”; b) “ Paratype / Pristerophora rothmanni sp. nov. / Desc. J. Mondaca E. 2024” (yellow label, typeset) ( JMEC) . 1 male, a) “ CHILE Reg. Aysén / Bahía Bahamondes / Trampa UV / 01 Ago. 2020 / Leg. F. Gatica” ( CSAG); b) “ Paratype / Pristerophora rothmanni sp. nov. / Desc. J. Mondaca E. 2024” (yellow label, typeset). 1 male, a) “ CHILE Reg. Aysén / Puerto Bahamondes / Trampa UV / 30-IX-2022 / Leg. F. Gatica ” ( CSAG); b) “ Paratype / Pristerophora rothmanni sp. nov. / Desc. J. Mondaca E. 2024” (yellow label, typeset). 1 female, 2 males, a) “ CHILE Reg. Aysén / Puerto Bahamondes / Trampa UV / 21-IX-2022 / Leg. F. Gatica ” (1 JMEC, 1 CSAG, 1 MNNC); b) “ Paratype / Pristerophora rothmanni sp. nov. / Desc. J. Mondaca E. 2024” (yellow label, typeset) . 1 male, a) “ CHILE Reg. Aysén / Puerto Bahamondes / Trampa UV / 22-IX-2022 / Leg. F. Gatica” ( CMNC); b) “ Paratype / Pristerophora rothmanni sp. nov. / Desc. J. Mondaca E. 2024” (yellow label, typeset).

Photographic material studied. One male from Isla Grande de Chiloé , Chiloé Province, Chile, 14-VI-2020, leg. M. Gargiulo ( Fig. 5 ). This specimen is excluded from the type series .

Diagnosis. This species is distinguished from all other taxa in the genus Pristerophora by the following combination of characters: length 11.0–13.0 mm, elytral integument bicolored, dorsally reddish brown, shiny, and irregularly mottled, with brown and white setae that accentuate the mottling; head, pronotum, antennae, and legs reddish brown ( Fig. 1 ). Clypeus subtrapezoidal, truncate or slightly rounded medially, not reflexed; anterior angles rounded. Labrum distinctly projected beyond the anterior margin of the clypeus ( Fig. 9 ). Head, pronotum, elytral base, and legs with moderately long, brown setae ( Fig. 2 ); venter moderately setose.

Description of holotype. Male. Length 12.0 mm, width 6.0 mm. Dorsal and ventral color reddish brown; dorsal surface moderately setose; setae brown, long and thin, erect, or intermixed with semi-recumbent setae. Head: surface densely punctate and moderately setose. Clypeus subtrapezoidal, slightly attenuate apically, not reflexed; anterior angles rounded. Eyes prominent. Antennae with nine antennomeres; antennal club with three antennomeres, club 1.3 times longer than antennomeres 1–6 combined. Labrum small, apically emarginate, projected beyond anterior margin of the clypeus, ventrally soldered to clypeal apex. Maxilla robust, triangular, basal width greater than width of mentum; maxillary palpus with four palpomeres; palpomere 1 short, palpomere 2 sub-cylindrical, palpomere 3 cupiform, palpomere 4 fusiform. Mentum approximately twice as long as wide, with a strong longitudinal groove; labial palpus very small. Pronotum: sub-pentagonal, widest and angulate anteromedially, anterolateral margin straight, posterior margin slightly sinuous, posterior angle rounded; posterior margin broadly rounded; surface densely punctate and moderately setose, with a mixture of short, white setae and other long, slender, brown setae, erect or semi-recumbent. Elytra: densely punctate and moderately setose, dorsally with short white, black, and brown setae intermixed; these latter brown setae are longer on both elytral margins; elytral striae inconspicuous due to pilosity. Venter: punctation and setae similar to dorsal surface. Pygidium weakly convex; surface densely to moderately punctate and setose. Legs: protibia with two apical outer teeth, remainder of protibial outer margin with eight smaller teeth in a saw-tooth configuration. Protibial spur present, metatibial spurs absent. Claws widely separated by at least a 60º angle, symmetrical, each claw split subapically. Genitalia: parameres broadly rounded, shorter than phallobase, distally sinuous, with apex curved downwards in lateral view ( Figs. 3–4 ).

Variation. Length 11.0–13.0 mm. Homogeneous integument color, without major variation. Females with antennal club small, subequal or slightly shorter than the length of antennomeres 1–6 combined; metatibia with two contiguous spurs (spurs absent in males).

Etymology. Named in honor of my friend and colleague Sergio Rothmann T. from Unidad de Entomología, Laboratorios y Estación Cuarentenaria Agrícola del Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero of Chile.

Distribution. Chile, Los Lagos (Llanquihue Province) and Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (Capitán Prat Province) regions ( Fig. 10 ). A photographic record ( Fig. 5 ) available at the https://www.inaturalist. org/observations/49720053 places this species on the Isla Grande de Chiloé (Chiloé Province). This species occurs in the Subantarctic subregion and Valdivian Forest province as defined by Morrone (2015).

Natural history and habitat. Adults are crepuscular and nocturnal and there are no known host plants on which they feed. Specimens of this macrodactyline have been collected with ultraviolet light traps at night between late winter (August) and late spring (December) in southern Chile. The larvae of this species probably live and feed in the root zone of pastures in southern Chile, similar to the larvae of P. picipennis ( Cisternas and Carrillo 2012) . This species occurs in open areas close to Nothofagus Blume forests and inside of temperate subantarctic forests known as “selva valdiviana”, an evergreen forest with a great diversity of plant species such as trees, ferns, mosses, in addition to fungi.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Pristerophora rothmanni new species from Isla Grande de Chiloé, Chile. Photograph by Matías Gargiulo.

FIGURE 10. Distribution of Pristerophora rothmanni new species in southern Chile (black dots).

FIGURES 1–4. Pristerophora rothmanni new species. 1, Dorsal habitus; 2, lateral habitus; 3, aedeagus, lateral view; 4, aedeagus, distal view.

FIGURES 6–9. Head in Pristerophora species, dorsal view. 6, P. longipes Philippi; 7, P. paulseni Smith; 8, P. picipennis (Solier); 9. P. rothmanni new species.