Serica (Serica) assingi Ahrens, Zhao, Pham & Liu, 2024

Ahrens, Dirk, Zhao, Ming-Zhi, Pham, Phu Van & Liu, Wan-Gang, 2024, Taxonomic updates on Pachyserica Brenske, 1898 and Serica MacLeay, 1819 reveal 38 new species and new challenges of Sericini systematics regarding DNA barcodes and genus-level diagnostic key characters (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Sericinae), Zootaxa 5491 (1), pp. 1-89 : 8-9

Serica (Serica) assingi Ahrens, Zhao, Pham & Liu , new species

Fig. 1F–J

Type material examined. Holotype ♂ “ China [18]—S. Gansu mountains SE Longnan, sifted, 33°11′17″N, 105°14′12″E, 2060m, 7.VIII.2012, V. Assing / Asia Sericini spec. 863” ( ZFMK).

Description of holotype. Length: 8.0 mm, length of elytra: 5.0 mm, width: 3.8 mm. Body oblong, reddish brown, head and pronotum darker, antenna and legs yellowish brown, on elytra with more or less large, dark spots, dorsal surface dull; elytra with sparse, moderately long, adpressed white setae, except on head and lateral margins of pronotum and elytra otherwise glabrous.

Labroclypeus as wide as long, widest at base, lateral margins straight and weakly convergent, anterior angles weakly rounded, anterior margin deeply and widely emarginate medially, lateral margins weakly reflexed, anterior margin moderately reflexed; surface flat and moderately shiny, coarsely and densely punctate, with some superficial transverse wrinkles, with a few long, erect setae behind the anterior margin; frontoclypeal suture indistinctly incised, slightly elevated and weakly convex; smooth area anterior to eye moderately large and flat, approximately twice as wide as long; ocular canthus long and slender (1/3 of ocular diameter), smooth, with one short terminal seta. Frons flat, in posterior half with dull toment, on anterior half weakly iridescent; surface with fine and moderately dense and somewhat irregular punctures, with long, erect setae beside the eyes and behind frontoclypeal suture. Eyes large, ratio diameter/interocular width: 0.98. Antenna with nine antennomeres; antennomeres three and four slightly longer than wide, antennomere five and six transverse and short; club with three antennomeres, 2.3 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and reflexed. Mentum weakly elevated, anteriorly flattened. Labrum transverse, short, moderately produced, deeply emarginate medially.

Pronotum transverse, twice as wide as long, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and moderately convergent anteriorly, anterior angles weakly produced, blunt, posterior angles almost right-angled, weakly rounded at tip; anterior margin medially with a complete broad marginal line and strongly convexly produced medially; surface not densely and finely, partly irregularly punctate, with a few white, short and appressed setae, otherwise only with very minute setae in punctures; anterior and lateral margins with long and dense setae; hypomeron not carinate at base. Scutellum slender and long, triangular, finely and partly densely punctate, with a few minute setae in the punctures.

Elytra oblong, widest at apical third, striae weakly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals slightly convex, with fine, moderately dense punctures, dark spots completely smooth; intervals with sparse, fine, short, white setae, fine long setae absent; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose, apical border chitinous, without membranous rim of fine microtrichomes (magnification 100x).

Ventral surface dull, finely and not densely punctate, moderately densely setose, metacoxa glabrous, with a few long setae only laterally; abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate, with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a short seta. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.36. Pygidium moderately convex and dull, finely and densely punctate, smooth midline lacking, along apical margin with sparse, fine setae, short mixed with long ones.

Legs slender; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, coarsely and not densely punctate between the rows, with robust setae on basal half; metafemur dull, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior margin, ventral posterior margin serrated in apical half and not widened, dorsal posterior margin completely serrated, in basal half with a few long setae which are half as long as width of metafemur. Metatibia slender and long, widest at apex, ratio of width/length: 1/3.8; dorsal margin sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at first third, apical group at two thirds of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; lateral face longitudinally concave, superficially punctate, entirely covered with irregular wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with two widely separated robust setae; medial face with a shallow longitudinal groove medially, sparsely punctate and glabrous; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation distinctly but bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, very minute setae, dorsally with longitudinal wrinkles; metatarsomeres laterally and dorsally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally, ventrally glabrous; first metatarsomere as long as following two tarsomeres combined and twice as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, external margin with a few small teeth in base half; anterior claws asymmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw small and lobiform.

Aedeagus: Fig. 1H–J . Habitus: Fig. 1F–G . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Serica assingi new species is in shape of genitalia similar to S. shaanxiensis Ahrens, 2005 . Serica assingi new species differs from the latter by the distinctly shorter left paramere, which is concavely excavated at apex, and by the wider right paramere whose lateral tooth is situated more distally compared to that of S. shaanxiensis .

Etymology. This new species (noun in genitive case) is dedicated to the collector of this species and friend, Volker Assing, who passed away 2022 by far too early, also in gratitude for his merits in Coleoptera research.

Figures

FIGURE 1. A–E: Serica gwangjuensis new species (holotype); F–J: S. assingi new species (holotype); A, H: aedeagus, left side lateral view; C, J: aedeagus, right side lateral view; B, I: parameres, dorsal view; D, F: habitus, dorsal view; E, G: habitus, lateral view. Scale bar: 0.5 mm. Habitus images not to scale.