Melolontha arunachalensis, 2023

Gupta, Devanshu, Keith, Denis, Bhunia, Debika, Das, Priyanka, Ghosh, Joyjit & Chandra, Kailash, 2023, Review of Melolontha Fabricius, 1775 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from India with the description of two new species, Zootaxa 5263 (2), pp. 191-216 : 197

phupanensis group

Li et al. (2010) proposed the phupanensis group based on a single species, Melolontha phupanensis Keith, 2008 , described from Laos and Vietnam. We place both newly described species, M. arunachalensis Gupta, Keith, Bhunia, Das, Ghosh & Chandra , new species and M. lachungensis Gupta, Keith, Bhunia, Das, Ghosh & Chandra , new species, in this group, based on the characters as proposed by Li et al. (2010) (refer to the key to species groups). The parameres in this group are symmetric, elongated, subequal in length with phallobase and outer margins parallel at the apical three-fourth part.