Serica (s. str.) mahakaliensis, Sreedevi, Kolla, Speer, Jana, Fabrizi, Silvia & Ahrens, Dirk, 2018

Sreedevi, Kolla, Speer, Jana, Fabrizi, Silvia & Ahrens, Dirk, 2018, New species and records of Sericini scarab beetles from the Indian subcontinent (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae), ZooKeys 772, pp. 97-128 : 105-108

publication ID

https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.772.25320

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B4FA4930-CB6B-47CC-AC26-E222C08575E5

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A9602DFE-A89C-4C02-BF6B-6261F95DECBB

taxon LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:act:A9602DFE-A89C-4C02-BF6B-6261F95DECBB

treatment provided by

ZooKeys by Pensoft

scientific name

Serica (s. str.) mahakaliensis
status

sp. n.

Serica (s. str.) mahakaliensis View in CoL sp. n. Figures 3 E–H, 5

Type material examined.

Holotype: ♂ "NEPAL: Mahakali/Darchula, Bachtal S Thaisain, 2910m, 29°51'52"N, 80°40'17"E, 18.vi.2017, LFF, leg. A. Kopetz #17-08" (NME). Paratypes: 14 ♂, 3 ♀ "NEPAL: Mahakali/Darchula, Bachtal S Thaisain, 2910m, 29°51'52"N, 80°40'17"E, 18.vi.2017, LFF, leg. A. Kopetz #17-08" (NME, ZFMK), 3 ♂ "Mahakali/Darchula, vic. Sintol Montaine Forest, 3050m, 29°49'50.5"N, 80°48'50"E, 26.vi.2017, At light, leg. A. Kopetz #17-14" (NME, ZFMK), 1 ♂ "NEPAL: Mahakali/Darchula, vic. Deuli village, 2400m, 29°48'45"N, 80°47'00"E, 28.vi.2017, LFF, leg. A. Kopetz #17-15" (NME), 2 ♂, 3 ♀ "Mahakali/Darchula, vic. Sitaula, Kopu Lekh, Kulanga Khola, 3500m, 29°53'04"N, 80°44'38"E, 21.vi.2017, river valley, by light, leg. A. Kopetz #17-10" (NME, ZFMK).

Description.

Length: 8.1 mm, length of elytra: 5.5 mm, width: 4.6 mm. Body oblong, dark brown, antenna yellowish, ventral surface, elytral striae, legs, and lateral pronotal margins reddish brown, dorsal surface dull; sparsely setose.

Labroclypeus narrowly subtrapezoidal, nearly as wide as long, widest at base, lateral margins straight, strongly convergent anteriorly; anterior angles weakly rounded, anterior margin deeply sinuate medially; lateral margins weakly reflexed, anterior margin strongly reflexed; surface flat and shiny, finely and densely punctate, with a few fine transverse wrinkles and a few erect setae; frontoclypeal suture indistinctly incised, weakly convex; smooth area anterior to eye large and convex, approximately 1.2 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and triangular (1/4 of ocular diameter), smooth, with one short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine sparse punctures, with a few erect setae beside eyes and on disc. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.71. Antenna yellowish with ten antennomeres; antennomeres three to five nearly as wide as long, antennomere six and seven transverse and short; club with three antennomeres, twice as long as remaining antennomeres combined and weakly reflexed. Mentum weakly elevated, anteriorly flattened. Labrum transverse, short, moderately produced, moderately sinuate medially.

Pronotum transverse, widest at base, lateral evenly weakly convex, moderately convergent anteriorly; anterior angles distinctly produced and sharp, posterior angles moderately rounded; anterior margin strongly convexly and with a fine marginal line; surface moderately densely and finely punctate, a few punctures with white, very short and appressed setae; anterior and lateral borders sparsely setose; hypomeron not carinate at base. Scutellum slender and long, triangular, finely and densely punctate, with a few adpressed setae.

Elytra oblong, widest in apical third, striae distinctly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals slightly convex, with fine, moderately dense punctures concentrated along striae, intervals with sparsely scattered fine, short, adpressed, white setae; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra; epipleura densely setose, apical border chitinous, without microtrichomes (magnification 100 x).

Ventral surface dull, finely and not densely punctate, moderately densely setose, metacoxa glabrous, with a few long setae only laterally; abdominal sternites finely and densely punctuate, with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a short seta. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.37. Pygidium weakly convex and dull, finely and densely punctate, with wide smooth midline, with sparsely scattered, moderately dense, long setae.

Legs very slender and long; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, coarsely and not densely punctate between the rows; metafemur dull, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior edge, posterior margin serrated ventrally in apical half and not widened, completely serrated dorsally, in basal half with a few long setae which are half as long as width of metafemur. Metatibia slender and long, widest at apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/ 5.22, dorsally longitudinally convex, with two groups of spines, basal group at anterior third, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single robust setae; external face slightly longitudinally concave, very finely and sparsely punctate, without longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with three robust setae of which the apical one is more distant; medial face flat, glabrous and impunctate, apex interiorly near tarsal articulation distinctly but bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, short setae, dorsally smooth; metatarsomeres laterally and dorsally not carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere slightly shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and one third of its length longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia long, bidentate, external edge with numerous small teeth, anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw narrow and truncate at apex.

Aedeagus: Fig. 3 E–G. Habitus: Fig. 3H.

Diagnosis.

Serica mahakaliensis sp. n. is in external and genital morphology very similar to S. kumaonensis Ahrens, 1999. The new taxon differs by the shorter and wider left paramere, and the lateral elongate branch of the right paramere that inserts at the middle of the paramere in Serica mahakaliensis sp. n. (at apical third in S. kumaonensis ).

Etymology.

The name (adjective in the nominative singular) refers to the Mahakali zone (Nepal).

Variation.

Length: 8.0-9.5 mm, length of elytra: 5.4-6.5 mm, width: 4.5-5.0 mm. Female: Antennal club slightly shorter than remaining antennomeres combined, eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.5.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Coleoptera

Family

Scarabaeidae

Genus

Serica