Maladera yunnanica Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, 2021

Fabrizi, Silvia, Liu, Wan-Gang, Bai, Ming, Yang, Xing-Ke & Ahrens, Dirk, 2021, A monograph of the genus Maladera Mulsant & Rey, 1871 of China (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), Zootaxa 4922 (1), pp. 1-400 : 300-301

Maladera yunnanica Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n.

Figures 70 I–L, 126

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “[ China] Yunan / 811 Sericini : Asia spec.” ( MNHN).

Description. Length: 8.8 mm, length of elytra: 6.7 mm, width: 6.0 mm. Body egg-shaped, dark brown, shiny, pronotum and scutellum dull, antenna yellow, glabrous.

Labroclypeus wide, trapezoidal, lateral margins straight and strongly convergent, producing with the ocular canthus a weak blunt angle, anterior angles blunt, anterior margin very indistinctly emarginate medially, margins weakly reflexed; surface weakly transversally convex, densely and coarsely punctate, distance between punctures less than their diameter, partly fusing with each other, with numerous erect setae anteriorly; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, bluntly angled medially; ocular canthus wide and short (equals 1/4 of ocular width), finely and sparsely punctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons with coarse and dense punctures, with a few single shorter and longer setae on surface irregularly scattered. Antenna with ten antennomeres, club with three antennomeres, distinctly shorter than remaining antennomeres combined. Eyes very small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.3. Mentum convexly elevated and flattened anteriorly.

Pronotum widest one third before base, lateral margins evenly convex and convergent anteriorly and posteriorly, anterior angles sharp and distinctly produced, posterior angles nearly blunt; anterior margin weakly convex, with a fine marginal line that is widely incomplete medially; basal margin without marginal line; surface coarsely and densely punctate, setae of lateral and anterior fine and sparse, punctures with microscopic setae only. Scutellum wide, triangular, punctation as on pronotum.

Elytra widest at middle, strongly convex, striae moderately impressed, finely punctate, intervals weakly convex, finely and densely punctate, punctures on odd intervals concentrated along striae, otherwise evenly distributed; epipleural margin robust, ending at strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra, sparsely setose; apex of elytra without a membraneous rim of short microtrichomes. Hindwings reduced.

Ventral face coarsely and densely punctate, sparsely setose, only metasternal plate and lateral metacoxa with a few robust setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.33. Abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate, each with a indistinct row of coarse punctures bearing each a robust seta. Pygidium moderately convex, finely and densely punctate, lateral and apical margins with short setae.

Legs moderately wide; femora finely and sparsely punctate, with two longitudinal rows of setae. Metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without adjacent serrated line; posterior ventral margin almost straight, weakly widened in apical half, ventrally and dorsally not serrated, glabrous. Metatibia long and moderately wide, ratio width/ length: 1/ 2.9, longitudinally convex dorsally, with two groups of spines, basal one at one third, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few fine and short setae; lateral face weakly longitudinally convex, finely and densely punctate; apex concavely emarginate interiorly near tarsal articulation, internal face finely densely punctate. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally and glabrous, with dense, fine setae ventrally; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated carina, subventrally with a second, smooth longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere little longer than following tarsomere, and as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, without blunt external extension at middle; anterior claws symmetric, interior tarsal claws sharply pointed.

Aedeagus: Fig. 70 I–K. Habitus: Fig. 70L . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. This new species differs from nearly all other Chinese Maladera species in having reduced metathoracic wings, and from Maladera aptera Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n. in having the pronotum opaque, the brownish coloration and the parameres long and nearly symmetrical.

Etymology. The new species is named after its occurrence in Yunnan, yunnanica (adjective in the nominative singular case).

Distribution. See map ( Fig. 126 ) and Table 1.

Figures

FIGURE 70. A–D: Maladera breviclava Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype); E–H: M. pingchuanensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype); I–L: M. yunnanica Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype). A, E, I: aedeagus, left side lateral view; C, G, K: aedeagus, right side lateral view; B, F, J: parameres, dorsal view; D, H, L: habitus. Scale: 0.5 mm. Habitus not to scale.

FIGURE 126. Distribution of the Maladera erlangshanica group: Maladera aptera sp. n., M. breviclava sp. n., M. erlangshanica sp. n., M. pingchuanensis sp. n., M. queinneci sp. n., M. yunnanica sp. n. (not precisely localized collection site indicated by a “?”).