Neoserica pubescens ( Burmeister, 1855 ) Pacheco & Monné & Vaz-De-Mello & Ahrens, 2020

Pacheco, Thaynara L., Monné, Marcela L., Vaz-De-Mello, Fernando Z. & Ahrens, Dirk, 2020, Notes on the taxonomy of some “ Astaena ” species described by Burmeister (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae), Zootaxa 4885 (1), pp. 143-145 : 143-144

Neoserica pubescens ( Burmeister, 1855) , new combination

Astaena pubescens Burmeister, 1855: 126 .

Neoserica subsetosa Ahrens & Fabrizi, 2016: 121 , new synonymy

Type material examined. Lectotype of Astaena pubescens , Ƌ, here designated: “ pubescens Br. Bras. Br. / 190. / Zool. Inst. Halle / Type Astaena pubescens G. Frey 19 Bur. / Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg Zentralmagazin Naturw. Sammlungen 18/01 05.12.2019 / Lectotype Ƌ Astaena pubescens Burmeister, 1855 det. T. Pacheco” ( MLUH) . Holotype of Neoserica subsetosa , Ƌ: “ N. Bengal / 612 Sericini Asia spec.” ( BMNH) . Paratypes of N. subsetosa , 1 Ƌ, 1 ♀: “ India occ. Maharshtra [sic] st. Bhushi Dam env. 24-28.ix. 4 km S of Lonavala 2005 leg. F. & L. Kantner 500 m ” ( SMNS, ZFMK) .

Remarks. The lectotype of Astaena pubescens Burmeister, 1855 and the holotype of Neoserica subsetosa Ahrens & Fabrizi, 2016 are virtually identical in the shape of aedeagus and external morphology, consequently, both names must be regarded as synonyms. The latter species was described in the framework of a two decades’ research on the taxonomy of Sericini of Asia and the Indian subcontinent of D.A. and colleagues. Thus, the morphology and distribution of the species were exhaustively described and illustrated in Ahrens & Fabrizi (2016).

Given that the genus Neoserica Brenske, 1894 does not occur in the Neotropics and we also not have been observed so far in the other unidentified material of Neotropical specimens of this species, we conclude that the type locality (“ Brazil ”) of Astaena pubescens is mistaken (likely due to erroneous specimen labeling). It can be quite likely excluded the probability that the species had been introduced to South America, which is extremely rare in literature for Sericini . Neoserica pubescens (= N. subsetosa ) is a rare taxon similar to its closest relative, N. setigera ( Brenske, 1894) , both from India ( Ahrens & Fabrizi, 2016).