Serica (Serica) jiulaoci 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 : 25-26

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

Fig. 9A–G

Type material examined. Holotype ♂ [ China] “ Jiulaoci, Mts. Emeishan , Sichuan, 31.VII.1957, 1800–1900m, leg. Lu Youcai, Huang Keren / LW-095 / Asia Sericini 1330 spec.” ( IZAS).

Description of holotype. Length: 9.5 mm, length of elytra: 7.1 mm, width: 5.4 mm. Body oblong, dark brown, legs reddish brown, antenna yellow, elytra with indistinct, dark spots, dorsal surface dull; pronotum and elytra with sparse, short, adpressed white setae, except densely setose frons otherwise glabrous.

Labroclypeus slightly wider than long, widest at base, lateral margin straight and moderately convergent anteriorly, anterior angles convex, anterior margin shallowly emarginate medially, margins weakly reflexed; surface flat, shiny, finely and densely punctate, partly transversely wrinkled, with a few erect setae behind anterior margin; frontoclypeal suture distinct, flat, weakly bent medially; smooth area anterior to eye 1.2 times as wide as long; ocular canthus moderately long and narrow (1/4 of ocular diameter), smooth, without terminal seta. Frons flat, dull; surface with fine and dense punctures, with fine, long, semierect setae throughout. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/interocular width: 0.7. Antenna with nine antennomeres; club with four (!) antennomeres, 1.2 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight; only antennomere five transverse and short, all other antennomeres of footstalk elongate. Mentum elevated and anteriorly flattened. Labrum transverse, short, moderately produced, deeply emarginate medially.

Pronotum transverse, almost twice as wide as long, widest at base, lateral margins moderately convex and strongly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles weakly produced and blunt but rounded in the tip, posterior angles convex; anterior margin medially weakly convex, anterior marginal line widely incomplete; surface densely and finely punctate including, disc with several shallow, indistinct impressions, with patches of fine, white, adpressed, short setae, otherwise only with minute setae in punctures or glabrous; anterior and lateral margins almost glabrous; hypomeron carinate. Scutellum slender and long, dull, triangular, finely and densely punctate, with minute setae in punctures, base and midline impunctate.

Elytra oblong, widest at apical third, striae weakly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals flat, with fine, moderately dense punctures, darker spots almost completely smooth; intervals with sparse, short, adpressed, white, setae; 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 densely punctate, metasternum partly 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, robust seta, otherwise finely densely setose. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.34. Pygidium of holotype lost.

Legs slender; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, coarsely and not densely punctate between the rows, with robust setae on basal half; metafemur shiny, 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: 1/5; dorsal margin sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at middle, apical group at four fifths of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; lateral face longitudinally concave, impunctate but densely wrinkled; 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, minute setae, dorsally impunctate but with dense, fine wrinkles; metatarsomeres laterally and dorsally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally, ventrally glabrous; metatarsomeres 2–4 missing in holotype; metatarsomere one slightly more than twice as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia long, bidentate, external margin almost smooth; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of both claws normal, sharply pointed at apex.

Aedeagus: Fig. 9I–L . Habitus: Fig. 9F, G . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Serica jiulaoci new species is in external appearance similar to S. liyitengi new species and S. gongtonggouensis new species, whose genitalia share some of the general appearance, which have most species of the subgenus Serica in common, but also species from the Serica nigroguttata group and the S. velutina group. From all these species, however, Serica jiulaoci new species differs by the antenna with a 4-lamellate club in male. Of course, also the shape of parameres of this new species is well different from all other species.

Etymology. The name of this new species (noun in apposition) is derived from its type locality, Jiulaoci (Sichuan, China).

Figures

FIGURE 9. A–E: Serica qizhihaoi new species (holotype); F–L: S. jiulaoci new species (holotype); A, I: aedeagus, left side lateral view; C, L: aedeagus, right side lateral view; B, J: parameres, dorsal view; K: aedeagus, dorsal view; D, F: habitus, dorsal view; E, G: habitus, lateral view; H: Head, dorsal view. Scale bar: 0.5 mm. Habitus images not to scale.