Melolontha indica Hope, 1831

(Figs. 10, 22, 50, 62)

Melolontha indica Hope 1831: 23 (type locality: Nepal); Arrow 1913a: 192; Arrow 1946: 31 (distribution); Mittal 1981: 35 – 40 (distribution); Sabatinelli 1992: 616 (catalogue); Mittal 2000: 266 (checklist); Li & Yang 2003: 218 (redescription, lectotype designation), figs. 1 – 13; Bhat et al. 2005: 14 – 15 (distribution); Bezdĕk 2006: 195 (catalogue); Sushil et al. 2006: 338 – 339 (distribution); Chandra & Uniyal 2007: 2821 (distribution); Ahrens et al. 2007: 12 (distribution); Li et al. 2010: 344, fig. 21; Krajčík 2012: 158; Keith & Stalin 2012: 20, pl. 1, figs., 293A–J, pl. 2, 296A–J, pl. 3, (new record, distribution); Pathania ET al. 2015a: 53 (distribution); Pathania et al. 2015b: 131 (distribution); Chandel et al. 2015: 150 (host, distribution); Bezdĕk 2016: 231 (catalogue); Lal & Sharma 2017: 447 – 452 (distribution); Ghosh et al. 2020: 249 (checklist); Rana et al. 2022a: 281–305 (description of grubs and adults); Rana et al. 2022b: 71–82.

Hoplosternus nitidicollis Blanchard 1851: 158 (type locality: Northern India); Dalla Torre 1912: 264 (catalogue); Sabatinelli 1992: 613 (catalogue).

Melolontha nitidicollis: Burmeister 1855: 411; Bezdĕk 2006: 196 (catalogue); Li et al. 2010: 345 (as a junior synonym of M. indica).

Material examined. India, Sikkim: Kopethang, 95 km. from Gangtok, 24.iii.1977, 1♀, leg. T.D. Shoot [NZSI]; Gangtok, Power, 10.ii.1993, 1♀, leg. S.K. Chatterjee [NZSI] . India, Meghalaya: Jantia Hilla, Jowai, 16.ix.1988, 1♀, leg. B.D. Srivastava [NZSI] . India, Arunachal Pradesh: Changlang, Namdhapa National Park, 29.x.2015, 2♀, 31.x.2015, 2♁, leg. A. Majumder [NZSI] . India, West Bengal: Alipurdwar, Buxa Tiger Reserve, Rajabhatkhawa, 26.x.2017, 2♁, 27.x.2017, 2♀, 28.x.2017, 2♁ 1♀, 30.x.2017, 1♁ 1♀, leg. Ram Singh [NZSI] . India, Assam: Cacher, Silchar, Poliya Tea Estate, 01.iv.2018, 1♁, leg. Joyjit Ghosh [NZSI] .

Diagnosis. Refer to species key.

Distribution. India: Arunachal Pradesh (new record), Assam (new record), Jammu and Kashmir (Bhat et al. 2005), Haryana (Mittal 1981), Himachal Pradesh (Chandra & Uniyal 2007; Pathania et al. 2015a, 2015b; Rana et al. 2022 a, 2022b), Meghalaya (new record), Sikkim (new record), and Uttarakhand (Sushil et al. 2006; Lal & Sharma, 2017); Myanmar (Arrow 1946), Pakistan (Keith & Stalin 2012), Nepal (Ahrens et al. 2007), and China (Bezdĕk 2006).

Host. Potato (Chandel et al. 2015).