Maladera rugosa ( Blanchard, 1850 ) Ahrens & Pacheco, 2020

Ahrens, Dirk & Pacheco, Thaynara L., 2020, Maladera rugosa (Blanchard, 1850) new combination-a valid species and senior synonym of Maladera graeca Petrovitz, 1969 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae Melolonthinae: Sericini), Zootaxa 4759 (3), pp. 443-445 : 443-444

Maladera rugosa ( Blanchard, 1850) new combination

Omaloplia rugosa Blanchard, 1850: 77 .

Maladera rugosa ( Blanchard, 1850) was synonymized by Brenske (1897) with Maladera punctatissima (Faldermann, 1835) (senior name), Serica elata Küster, 1849 , Maladera armeniaca Reitter, 1896 , and Maladera fusconitens ( Fairmaire, 1892) . These last two were later revalidated by Petrovitz (1969 and 1964, respectively). Since then, M. rugosa status was never questioned again.

Type material examined. Omaloplia rugosa , lectotype, ♂, present designation: “ O. rugosa Cat. Mus. Moreé / Brulle Moreé / O. rugosa Cat. Mus. Moreé / Musem Paris Moreé Brullé 4187-33” ( MNHN) . Paralectotype, ♀: “ Mus. Paris Moreé Marloy 1833/ Marloy Moree /. rugosa Cat. Mus. Moreé / rugosa Bl. punctatissima Fald. (hand-written Brenske )” ( MNHN, specimen interiorly damaged by dermestids, antenna missing too) .

Additional material examined. 1 ♀ “678409/ Greece S-Peleponnes [sic], Taygetos Mts. , Valley N Krioneri 4. July 2005 leg. Ahrens ” ( ZFMK) , 1 ♀ “West-Peloponnes, Eichenwald bei Agia Triada, östl. von Amaliada, 600 m, leg. Apfel ” ( CWAE) .

Remarks. The paralectotype (female) specimen is distinctly larger, browner and has a convexly elevated clypeus with a rugosely punctate surface.

Maladera rugosa ( Blanchard, 1850) new combination was originally described from Greece (Moreé, i.e., Peloponnese), as well as M. graeca Petrovitz, 1969 . The synonymy of Maladera rugosa ( Blanchard, 1850) with M. punctatissima (Faldermann, 1835) ( Brenske 1897; Petrovitz 1969; Ahrens 2006, 2007; Ahrens & Bezděk 2016) was never doubted or ever properly checked while Petrovitz (1969) erected a number of new and closely related species from Greece, Turkey and Near East. Brenske obviously has seen at least one of the syntypes (the specimen bears a label with his handwriting), but he did not examine the genitalia (his specimen is very likely a female that was strongly damaged by dermestids) of the intact syntype specimen.

Male genitalia of the lectotype of Maladera rugosa ( Blanchard, 1850) , which have been compared with the drawings of the original publication of M. graeca , result to be virtually identical to with the latter, thus, M. graeca Petrovitz, 1969 has to be considered a junior synonym of Maladera rugosa ( Blanchard, 1850) . The nearly sympatrical Maladera krueperi Petrovitz, 1969 , also described from Greece (Peloponnese), seems to be well distinct by the strongly arched dorsal lobe of the right paramere.

Given the quite striking morphological similarity of Maladera rugosa ( Blanchard, 1850) with other species, such as M. apfelbecki Petrovitz, 1969 from Albania and M. villiersi Petrovitz, 1969 from Syria, the necessity to clarify the status of Serica elata Küster, 1849 (since Brenske (1897) a junior synonym of M. punctatissima but unlikely to be synonym of the latter, since it was described from Montenegro), and given a quite well geographically pronounced morphological variation in all species of the subgenus Macroserica Medvedev, 1952 , there is evident a great need of a comprehensive study of the geographical variation of the populations and species in a context of a subsequent taxonomic treatment.