Maladera houzhenziensis 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 : 221-222

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

Figures 50 I–L, 115

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “China-Shaanxi, S Taibashan Tsingling Mts. ; Houzhenzi vil.; 33°53’N 107°49’E; 15.viii.-15.x. local collector leg.; 1999; 1600 m / Coll. D. Ahrens / 588 Sericini Asia spec.” ( ZFMK) . Paratypes: 1 ♂ “ China-Shaanxi, S Taibashan Tsingling Mts.; Houzhenzi vil.; 33°53’N 107°49’E; 15.viii.-15.x. local collector leg.; 1999; 1600 m / Coll. D. Ahrens / 588 Sericini Asia spec.” ( ZFMK) , 1 ♂ “ China, Shaanxi, Tsingling Mts.; South Taibashan, 1400m, Houzhenzi , 33°51’N 107°49’E; x.1999, leg. by local collector” ( CP) , 1 ♂ “ China - Shaanxi, SW Tsingling Mts.; Taiping vill. 33°33’N 106°43’E; June 2000, 1500-2000m, Siniaev & Plutenko leg.” ( CP) , 10 ♂♂ “ China, Shaanxi, Panda area, Nat. Res. Foping , 1600 m, 6-11.iv.1999, 33°45’N, 107°48’E, V. Siniaev & A. Plutenko ” ( CP, ZFMK) .

Description. Length: 8.4 mm, length of elytra: 6.0 mm, width: 4.5 mm. Body oblong, dark reddish brown, antenna yellow, dorsal surface dull and almost glabrous.

Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal and wide, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and distinctly convergent to moderately rounded anterior angles, lateral margin and ocular canthus producing an indistinct blunt angle, margins weakly reflexed, anterior margin emarginate medially; surface flat and moderately shiny, coarsely and very densely punctate, distance between punctures less than their diameter, punctures partly fused, anteriorly on the sides with a few long, erect setae; frontoclypeal suture very feebly incised and medially weakly angled; smooth area in front of eye very short and approximately twice as wide as long; ocular canthus moderately long and slender, finely and sparsely punctate, with a moderately long single terminal seta. Frons dull, in anterior quarter moderately shiny, with fine and somewhat irregularly scattered moderately dense punctures, with a few short setae beside eyes and laterally behind frontoclypeal suture. Eyes small, ratio of diameter/ interocular width: 0.44. Antenna yellow, 10- segmented; club with three segments, almost 2.5 times as long as remaining joints combined. Mentum convexly elevated anteriorly.

Pronotum moderately wide, widest at base, lateral margins almost straight and subparallel, in anterior quarter strongly curved and convergent, in posterior half feebly concavely emarginate, anterior angles moderately produced and weakly rounded, posterior angles right angled and weakly rounded only in the tip, anterior margin moderately produced medially, with a distinct and wide marginal line, basal margin without marginal line; surface with moderately dense and fine punctures, with microscopic setae in punctures only; anterior and lateral margins setaceous; hypomeron distinctly carinate at base. Scutellum narrow and long, sharp at apex, with fine and not dense punctures, medially not smooth, microscopic setae present in the punctures.

Elytra oblong, widest in posterior third, striae distinctly impressed and finely and densely punctate, intervals weakly convex and not densely punctate, odd intervals with punctures concentrated along the striae and with some single fine setae; epipleural margin robust, ending at the strongly curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setaceous, apical border membraneous, with a rim of short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface dull, with large and dense punctures, sparsely and shortly setose, setae partly adpressed, metacoxa glabrous, laterally with fine setae; each abdominal sternite with indistinct transversal row of coarse punctures bearing short setae between fine and moderately dense punctation. Mesosternum between mesocoxae almost half as wide as mesofemur, with irregularly scattered fine setae. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.34. Pygidium convex at apex, finely and moderately densely punctate, without smooth midline, punctures with very minute setae only, densely setaceous beside apical margin.

Legs slender and with shiny surface; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and moderately densely punctate; metafemur ventrally dull, sharply margined anteriorly and without a submarginal serrated line, posterior margin straight, with a few strong setae medially, only weakly widened externally in apical half and not serrated in distal half, internally not serrated, with short setae. Metatibia slender and long, widest at apex, ratio width/ length: 1/ 3.9, dorsally at least in posterior two third sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, the basal group of spines shortly before half of metatibial length, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single fine spines in punctures; lateral face longitudinally convex, with a fine sparse punctures; ventral margin finely serrated, with three fine, equally spaced spines, medial face not punctate, apex interiorly near tarsal articulation sharply truncate. Tarsomeres dorsally glabrous and impunctate, ventrally with sparse, short robust setae; metatarsomeres dorsally with superficial fine longitudinal punctures or impressions, ventrally with a strongly serrated ridge, without longitudinal carina immediately beside it, first metatarsomere distinctly longer than the following joint and one third of its length longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, protarsal claws asymmetrical, basal tooth of inner protarsal claw not widened and apically sharply pointed, a little longer than the narrow apical tooth.

Aedeagus: Fig. 50 I–K. Habitus: Fig. 50L . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Maladera houzhenziensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n. may be differentiated from M. gansuensis by the more robust body shape, the metatibia sharply carinate dorsally, the convexly convergent lateral margins of labroclypeus, the more distinctly produced anterior angles of the pronotum and the shape of the male genitalia. In M. gansuensis , the right paramere is strongly, convexly widened medially while in M. houzhenziensis the dorsomedial margin of right paramere is almost straight and the dorsal apophysis is separated from the phallobase by a shallow excavation at its base.

Etymology. The name (adjective in the nominative singular case) of the new species is derived from the name of its type locality, Houzhenzi.

Variation. Length: 8.1–8.5 mm, length of elytra: 5.8–6.2 mm, width: 4.5–4.9 mm.

Distribution. See map ( Fig. 115 ) and Table 1.

Figures

FIGURE 50. A–D: Maladera yangi Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype); E–H: M. shaluishanica Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype); I–L: M. houzhenziensis 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 115. Distribution of the Maladera gansuensis group: Maladera houzhenziensis sp. n. and M. yangi sp. n..