Miridiba (Miridiba) obscura Itoh, 1995

Gao, Chuan-Bu, Bai, Ming, Fang, Hong & Yu, Zhi-Guo, 2018, Four new species of the genus Miridiba Reitter (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from China, Zootaxa 4527 (1), pp. 1-20 : 14

Miridiba (Miridiba) obscura Itoh, 1995 stat. nov.

( Figs. 5 a–c, 6)

Miridiba tuberculipennis obscura Itoh, 1995: 199 .

Type locality. “Doi Suthep” (= Thailand: Doi Suthep ) .

Type material examined. Paratype, male, labelled: “Doi mae Salong / near Chiang mai / N. Thailand / 21-?- 1992 / K. Kawano leg. [handwritten] // Paratype ♂ / Miridiba / tuberculipennis / obscura T. ITOH / 1995 [typeset]”, deposited in MFNB ; paratype, female: “ Doi suthap / near Chiang mai / N. Thailand / 3-V-1988 / Y. Kuwahara leg. [handwritten] // Paratype ♀ / Miridiba / tuberculipennis / obscura T. ITOH / 1995 [typeset]”, deposited in MFNB .

Additional material examined. Male, labelled: “ Yunnan, Xishuangbanna, Menghun / 1200 m / Chinese Academy of Sciences [typeset, Chinese] // 1958-V-11 / Collector Xuwu Meng [typeset, Chinese] // Miridiba obscura Itoh, 1995 / Chuanbu Gao det. 2018 [handwritten]”, deposited in IZCAS; 3 males and 3 females: “ Yunnan, Menghai / Chinese Academy of Sciences [typeset, Chinese ] // 1982 / Collector Binjia Lin [handwritten, Chinese ] / / Miridiba obscura Itoh, 1995 / Chuanbu Gao det. 2018 [handwritten]”, deposited in IZCAS ; female: “39-14 / Yunnan, Yangbi [handwritten, Chinese ] // Miridiba obscura Itoh, 1995 / Chuanbu Gao det. 2018 [handwritten]”, deposited in IZCAS ; male: “ Yunnan, Nangunhe Nature Reserve, Gengma, Furong / Xiaochen Zhang 126a / 2007- 6-10 / NWAFU [handwritten, Chinese ] // Miridiba obscura Itoh, 1995 / Chuanbu Gao det. 2018 [handwritten]”, deposited in NWAFU ; female: “ Yunnan, Nan Gunhe Nature Reserve, Gengma, Furong / Chong Wei 126a / 2007-7- 10 / NWAFU [handwritten, Chinese ] // Miridiba obscura Itoh, 1995 / Chuanbu Gao det. 2018 [handwritten]”, deposited in NWAFU .

Distribution. China (Yunnan) ( Fig. 6 ), Thailand, Laos ( Itoh 1995).

Remarks. Newly recorded for China. One female of M. (M.) tuberculipennis obscura Itoh, 1995 and one male of M. (M.) tuberculipennis Fairmaire, 1891 were collected in the same place Yangbi County of Yunnan province (see additional material examined). We therefore propose that M. (M.) tuberculipennis obscura should be elevated to species status as M. (M.) obscura Itoh, 1995 . The two species can be separated by the shape of the clypeus (moderately bilobate in M. (M.) tuberculipennis while arcuate in M. (M.) obscura ), and by the shape of the dorsal and ventral branches of the parameres (thin in M. (M.) tuberculipennis while thick and expanded in M. (M.) obscura ) ( Figs. 5a ̄f).

Figures

FIGURE 5. Miridiba (M.) obscura Itoh, 1995 (a, c, e) and M. (M.) tuberculipennis (Moser, 1913) (b, d, f). a, b, habitus, dorsal view; c, d, parameres, lateral view; e, f, parameres, ventral view. Scale bar: 5 mm for a, b; 1 mm for c, d, e, f.

FIGURE 6. Distribution map for six Miridiba species in China.