Maladera ninglangensis 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 : 192-193

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

Figures 43 I–L, 110

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “[ China] Ninglang County, Yunnan, 13-15.VII.2004, leg. Yuan Caixia, Li Jing” ( HBUM).

Description. Length: 8.8 mm, length of elytra: 7.2 mm, width: 5.2 mm. Body oval, reddish brown, antenna brown, labroclypeus shiny, remainder of dorsal surface dull, with a few short setae on the head and elytra.

Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, moderately wider than long, widest at base; lateral margins weakly convex and moderately convergent to strongly rounded anterior angles, lateral margin and ocular canthus producing a distinct blunt angle, margins weakly reflexed, anteriorly weakly emarginate medially; surface weakly carinate medially, shiny, coarsely and densely punctate, distance between punctures smaller their diameter, with few long, erect setae anteriorly; frontoclypeal suture weakly impressed and moderately angled medially; smooth area in front of eye approximately twice as wide as long; ocular canthus short and wide, finely punctate, with one terminal seta. Frons dull, with fine, dense punctures, glabrous except for a few single setae beside eyes. Eyes small, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.53. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum anteriorly elevated and flattened.

Pronotum subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins moderately convex and strongly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles distinctly produced; anterior marginal line robust and complete, margin weakly convexly produced medially; basal margin without marginal line; surface finely and densely punctate, with minute setae in punctures only; anterior and lateral margins sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate but not ventrally produced. Scutellum wide, triangular, with fine and dense punctures, each bearing a single very minute seta.

Elytra oblong, widest at middle, striae weakly impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals weakly elevated, with fine, dense punctures, with a few fine, erect, short setae, otherwise punctures with very minute setae; epipleural margin robust, ending at strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra; epipleura densely setose; apical border membraneous, with short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface dull, metasternum and metacoxa with fine and dense punctures, sparsely setose; metacoxa glabrous except for a few long setae laterally. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.33. Abdominal sternites, in addition to fine and moderately dense punctures, each with a distinct transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a short and robust seta, punctures with microscopic setae; penultimate sternite apically with a shiny smooth chitinous border, which is one third as long as sternite. Pygidium moderately convex, finely and moderately densely punctate, without smooth midline, punctures with microscopic setae and with a few long setae along apical margin.

Legs long and moderately wide; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate. Metafemur dull, anterior margin acute, lacking an adjacent serrated line, posterior ventral margin medially straight, weakly widened in apical half and not serrate, dorsally not serrated, finely setose. Metatibia moderately wide and long, widest at apex, ratio of width/length: 1/3.24; sharply carinate dorsally, with two groups of spines, basal one shortly before the middle, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length, with a few robust spines basally; lateral face longitudinally convex, impunctate except for sparse and fine punctures on dorsal portion; ventral margin serrate, with four equidistant spines; medial face impunctate; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation shallowly concave. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally, ventrally with sparse, short setae; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated ridge, beside which is not a strong longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere slightly shorter than two following tarsomeres combined and slightly longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate. All claws symmetrical, feebly curved and long, with normally developed basal tooth.

Aedeagus: Fig. 43 I–K. Habitus: Fig. 43L . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. The new species differs from the similar M. stridula (Brenske) in possessing a sharp dorsal hook on the left paramere.

Etymology. The new species is named after its locality, Ninglang (adjective in the nominative singular case).

Distribution. See map ( Fig. 110 ) and Table 1.

Figures

FIGURE 43. A–D: Maladera drescheri (Moser, 1913) (Thailand: Bo Klua); E–H: M. stridula (Brenske, 1897) (Taiwan: Kenting); I–L: M. ninglangensis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. 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 110. Distribution of the Maladera drescheri group: Maladera drescheri (Moser, 1913), M. ninglangensis sp. n., M. stridula (Brenske, 1897).