Serica jirii Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, 2022

Ahrens, Dirk, Fabrizi, Silvia, Bai, Ming & Liu, Wangang, 2022, Taxonomic revision of Serica MacLeay, 1819 (sensu lato) from China and adjacent areas (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), with updates on Nipponoserica Nomura, 1972, Zootaxa 5186 (1), pp. 1-83 : 39-41

Serica jirii Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , new species

Figures 9A–D , 24

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ China: Yunnan Prov., 8 km NW Gudong, 28.vi.2016 Yunfeng Shan NP Lyzu temple, at light 25°22.6’N, 98°24.4’E, 2350 m J. Hájek & J. Růžička leg./ 1106 Asia Sericini spec. ” ( NMPC) . Paratypes: 2 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀ “ Myanmar (Burma) Provinz Kachin State Three River Junction ( Thone chaung sone) N 26°23’13.5’’ E 098°39’36.3 ’’ 2.X.2010 (H= 2044m; LF) leg. Michael Langer, S. Naumann & S. Löffler ” ( ZFMK) .

Description of the holotype. Length: 8.0 mm, length of elytra: 6.4 mm, width: 4.8 mm. Body elongate eggshaped, dark brown, partly with greenish toment or shine, elytra partly yellowish brown with dark brown spots, antenna and ventral surface including femora yellowish, tibiae brown; dorsal surface dull and almost glabrous except a few single short setae on pronotum and elytra.

Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, distinctly wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins convex and convergent anteriorly, anterior angles acute; anterior margin deeply and widely emarginate medially; margins weakly reflexed; surface flat and moderately shiny, finely and moderately densely punctate, glabrous; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, weakly curved; smooth area anterior to eye small and flat, 1.3 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and slender (1/4 of ocular diameter), impunctate, without terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and dense punctures, almost completely glabrous, with a few short setae beside eyes. Eyes small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.48. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight. Mentum strongly elevated, convex. Labrum strongly produced along the middle, deeply emarginate medially.

Pronotum narrow and subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins evenly weakly convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles distinctly produced and acute; posterior angles blunt; anterior margin with a wide marginal line and weakly produced medially; surface densely and coarsely punctate, with sparse short yellow setae bent posteriorly and partly with minute setae in punctures; lateral and anterior margins sparsely setose; hypomeron carinate at base, not produced ventrally. Scutellum large, triangular, finely and densely punctate, on midline punctures less dense, glabrous.

Elytra oval, widest in posterior third, striae finely impressed, finely and densely punctate; intervals flat, with fine, moderately dense punctures concentrated along striae; dark spots impunctate; with a few single, fine, short, white, adpressed setae, without longer, erect setae; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical margin chitinous, without a rime of minute microtrichomes (magnification 100x).

Ventral surface dull, finely and densely punctate, almost glabrous, with a few single setae on metasternal disc; metacoxa glabrous, except a few short lateral setae; abdominal sternites with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a long seta, otherwise glabrous and very superficially sparsely punctate, ultimate sternite densely shortly setose; penultimate sternite at posterior margin with a wide membraneous rim being one third as long as sternite. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.44. Pygidium strongly convex and dull, yellow with small dark spots, finely and densely punctate, smooth midline narrow, with sparse short and longer setae on apical third.

Legs slender; femora dull, with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate between the rows; metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior edge; ventral posterior margin not serrated and only weakly widened at apex, dorsal posterior margin completely but finely serrated, in basal half with a few long setae which are one third as long as metafemur width. Metatibia slender and long, widest shortly before apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/ 4.1, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at middle, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; external face sparsely and finely punctate, without longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with two extremely widely separated robust setae (abraded in holotype, but recognizable by their insertion point); medial face glabrous and smooth; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation concavely truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally smooth. Metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, laterally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere little longer than following tarsomere and as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin smooth but bluntly extended at middle (lateral protibial teeth in holotype strongly abraded); anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw bluntly truncate as the external one.

Aedeagus: Fig. 9A–C . Habitus: Fig. 9D . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Serica jirii Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , new species strongly resembles the species of the Serica nigroguttata group. However, S. jirii differs from them by the more robust and more convex body, the deeply and widely emarginate labrum, the lacking membraneous rim of apical elytral margin, the dark preapical elytral spot, as well as by the short parameres lacking the framing of left paramere by the ventral membrane of the right one.

Etymology. The species is named (noun in singular genitive case) after one of its collectors Jiří Hájek (NMPC).

Variation. Length: 8.0– 8.6 mm, length of elytra: 6.4 –6.5mm, width: 4.6–4.8 mm. Female: club only little shorter than in male; eyes as large as in male; pygidium weakly convex.

Figures

FIGURE 9. A–D: Serica jirii Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species (holotype); E–H: S. pangwa Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species (holotype). A, E: Aedeagus, left side lateral view; C, G: Aedeagus, right side lateral view; B, F: Parameres, dorsal view; D, H: Habitus (not to scale). Scale: 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 24. Distribution of Serica baoshan Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species, S. jani Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species, S. jaroslavi Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species, S. jiri Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species, S. pangwa Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species, S. shengtangshan Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species, S. yuheba Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species, S. zhenba Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species, S. ziqingi Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, new species.