Maladera parabrunnescens 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 : 224-226

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

Figures 51 E–H, 116

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “[ China] Mt. Wuyanling, Taishun , Zhejiang, 28.VII-3.VIII.2005, leg. Ba Yibin ” ( HBUM).

Description. Length: 10.2 mm, width: 7.5 mm, length of elytra: 6.1 mm. Body oblong, reddish brown, antenna yellow, dorsal surface shiny, almost glabrous.

Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins slightly curved and strongly convergent to feebly rounded anterior angles, lateral border and ocular canthus produce a distinctly blunt angle, anterior margin widely emarginate medially, margins weakly reflexed; surface distinctly convex medially and shiny, finely and densely punctate, with numerous coarse punctures in anterior half bearing fine and erect setae; frontoclypeal suture very indistinctly incised and medially weakly angled; smooth area in front of eye very small, 1.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus moderately long and moderately slender, densely finely punctate, with one terminal seta. Frons with fine, sparsely scattered punctures, with a few setae beside eyes and behind frontoclypeal suture. Eyes moderately small, ratio of diameter/ interocular width: 0.64. Antenna yellow, with ten antennomeres; club with three segments, as long as remaining segments together. Mentum elevated, anteriorly flattened and glabrous.

Pronotum moderately wide, widest at base, lateral margins in basal half straight and moderately convergent anteriorly, in anterior half convex and strongly convergent, anterior angles strongly produced and sharp, posterior angles sharp; anterior margin weakly produced medially, base without marginal line; surface finely and densely punctate, glabrous; anterior and lateral border sparsely setose. Scutellum wide, triangular, with fine and dense punctures, glabrous.

Elytra moderately oblong, widest behind middle, striae moderately impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals moderately convex, with fine and sparsely punctures concentrated along striae, a few punctures on odd intervals with sparse fine, erect setae; epipleural margin robust, ending at strongly curved external apical angle of elytra; epipleura sparsely setose, apical border membraneous, covered with very short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface shiny, coarsely and densely punctate, almost glabrous, metacoxal plates laterally with a few long setae; each abdominal sternite with a transversal row of coarse punctures bearing short and fine setae between fine and dense punctation, penultimate sternite apically with a shiny smooth chitinous border, which is a quarter as long as sternite. Mesosternum between mesocoxae a little less wide than mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.04. Pygidium moderately convex, finely and densely punctate, without smooth midline, surface apically dull and with numerous fine and long setae; apical margin medially distinctly emarginate, beside each side of emargination with a blunt tooth.

Legs moderately slender; femora shiny, with two longitudinal rows of setae, between the rows only sparsely punctate; anterior margin of metafemur sharply carinate, adjacent to anterior margin without serrated line; posterior margin ventrally in apical half finely serrated, little widened at apex, completely serrated dorsally, in basal half with a few fine setae. Metatibia moderately slender and moderately long, widest at apex, ratio width/ length: 1/ 3.5; dorsal margin moderately carinate, with two groups of spines, basal one at one third, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with two single setae with punctures having a serrated margin; lateral face longitudinally convex, with dense, coarse and longitudinally impressed punctures, glabrous; ventral margin with three robust spines of which the apical two are more distant; internal face sparsely, finely punctate, apex shallowly emarginate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Pro-and mesotibia as well as metatarsomeres lacking in holotype.

Aedeagus: Fig. 51 E–G. Habitus: Fig. 51H . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Maladera parabrunnescens Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n. differs from the similar M. brunnescens (Frey, 1972) in having relatively straight parameres with a long, median lateral sharp tooth.

Etymology. The name of the new species (adjective in the nominative singular) is derived from the combined Greek prefix ‘ para -’ (close to) and the species name “ brunnescens ”, with reference to the strong similarity to Maladera brunnescens (Frey) .

Distribution. See map ( Fig. 116 ) and Table 1.

Figures

FIGURE 51. A–D: Maladera brunnescens (Frey, 1972) (holotype); E–H: M. parabrunnescens Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype). A, E: aedeagus, left side lateral view; C, G: aedeagus, right side lateral view; B, F: parameres, dorsal view; D, H: habitus. Scale: 0.5 mm. Habitus not to scale.

FIGURE 116. Distribution of the Maladera brunnescens group: Maladera brunnescens (Frey, 1972), M. filigraniforceps sp. n., M. flavipennis sp. n., M. parabrunnescens sp. n..