Meishania Chen & Wang, 1980

Ruan, Yongying, Konstantinov, Alexander S., Prathapan, K. D., Zhang, Mengna, Jiang, Shihong & Yang, Xingke, 2018, New contributions to the knowledge of Chinese flea beetle fauna (III): revision of Meishania Chen & Wang with description of five new species (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae), Zootaxa 4403 (1), pp. 186-200 : 187-188

Genus Meishania Chen & Wang, 1980

Meishania Chen & Wang, 1980: 13 , 24. Type species: Meishania rufa Chen & Wang, 1980 , by original designation.

Distribution: Bhutan, China (Yunnan, Sichuan).

Host plants: Unknown.

Description: Body small, ovate in dorsal view, moderately convex in lateral view. Body length: 1.85–3.45 mm, width: 1.10–2.15 mm. Color of dorsum variable: red, yellow brown or metallic blue. Dorsum glabrous, with or without metallic luster, pronotum and elytra differently colored in some species.

Head hypognathous. Vertex glabrous, impunctate or with extremely tiny scattered punctures. Supraorbital pore large, bearing a long seta, situated on each side near eye. Antennal calli contiguous, separated by midfrontal sulcus, moderately or well delimited. Midfrontal, supraorbital and orbital sulci deep, strongly developed. Supracallinal, supraantennal, and suprafrontal sulci moderately to poorly developed. Frontal ridge in lateral view moderately convex. Width of frontal ridge less than that of one antennal socket. Orbit narrow, not wider than diameter of antennal socket. Antennal sockets situated at middle level of eye or slightly below. Anterior margin of labrum not incised. Apical maxillary palpomere conical. Clypeus band-like. Mandible laterally produced, often extremely robust.

Antenna long and stout, with 11 antennomeres, reaching near middle of elytra over pronotum. First antennomere about as long as next two combined. Distal antennomeres robust, wider than middle ones.

Pronotum about 1.5–2 times wider than long, glabrous, weakly or moderately punctate. Lateral margins of pronotum slightly curved, converging anteriorly. Hind margin of pronotum more or less sinuate, forming a lobe at middle. Anterolateral callosity protruding anteriorly, round or slightly truncate; posterolateral callosity poorly developed.

Procoxal cavities open. Intercoxal prosternal process extends slightly beyond procoxae, lateral margins concave, apical margin straight or slightly concave, apex wider than middle.

Elytra with humeral calli well developed. Width of elytra at base prominently exceeds that of pronotum at base. Elytral punctures large to medium sized, confused or semi-regularly arranged in lines. Scutellum small, ligulate to triangular. Elytral apex rounded to slightly acute, covering entire abdomen. Lateral sides of elytra convex. Epipleura outwardly oblique, gradually narrowing from base to apex, reaching end of elytron, with maximum width less than that of profemur.

Mesosternum more or less flat. Meso- and metasternum without elevated projection in middle. Abdominal ventrites 1 and 2 not fused. Abdominal ventrite 1 slightly longer than 2–4 together. Abdominal ventrite 5 longer than or about as long as 3 and 4 together. First abdominal ventrite without subparallel longitudinal ridges on intercoxal part. Anterior end of first abdominal ventrite normally wide, truncate.

Third tarsomere of all legs entire, without incision, disc like, much wider than other tarsomeres. Pro- and meso- tibiae without apical spurs. Metatibia with slender apical spur. Metafemoral spring present. Hind and middle tibiae without visible distal excavation laterally. Metatibia apparently straight, nearly round in cross-section around middle. Dorso-lateral margin of metatibia without a row of sharp denticles. First metatarsomere articulated at apex of metatibia, not longer than second and third metatarsomeres together. Claw appendiculate.

Aedeagus short and robust. In lateral view, aedeagus moderately curved to nearly straight. In ventral view, sides of aedeagus parallel; apical denticle and ventral groove absent.

Spermatheca with comparatively small and narrow receptacle, medium sized pump and duct. Vaginal palpi extremely short and wide, fused with each other. Tignum spatulate with apex broad and strongly expanded.

Diagnosis: Meishania is rather distinct amongst Oriental flea beetle genera with the following combination of characters: all third tarsomeres strongly widened and not incised; vaginal palpi of female short and entirely fused; antennal calli adjacent and separated by midfrontal sulcus; basal margin of pronotum distinctly sinuate; and frontal ridge narrower than antennal socket.

The following genera share broad and entire third tarsomeres with Meishania : Argopistes Motschulsky , Argopus Fischer , Bhamoina Bechyné , Chilocoristes Weise , Jacobyana Maulik , Omeisphaera Chen & Zia , Parargopus Chen , Pentamesa Harold , and Sphaeroderma Stephens. However , all of them, except the closely resembling Sphaeroderma , are separable from Meishania by the hemispherical body as well as other salient characters of each of them: Argopistes has first metatarsomere preapically articulated on metatibia and subparallel ridges on first ventrite; Argopus has anterofrontal ridge strongly curved and emarginate medially; Bhamoina has highly spherical body shape and strongly forward produced antero-lateral corner of pronotum; in Chilocoristes elytral epipleura is vertical and apical maxillary palpomeres are globose; Jacobyana is unique with rugose head, deep antennal channel between eye and anterofrontal ridge and long first metatarsomere; Omeisphaera has the metasternum covering the mesosternum; Parargopus has the strongly convex body shape from lateral view, highly spherical shape from dorsal view and widely separated antennal calli.

Meishania resembles Pentamesa Harold in having short and stout aedeagus, similar shape of spermatheca, highly shortened vaginal palpi and tignum with posterior part strongly expanded. However, they can be separated based on many external characters. In Meishania , antennal calli are adjacent and are separated by a midfrontal sulcus, while in Pentamesa , they are widely separated; further, sexually dimorphic foretibia in Pentamesa will quickly separate these two genera.

Meishania is closely allied to Sphaeroderma . However, species of Sphaeroderma are generally spherical, while those of the former are oblong. The antennal calli are generally broader than long and well delimited posteriorly in Sphaeroderma as supracallinal sulci are well developed. However, in Meishania , the antennal calli are poorly delimited posteriorly, longer, broadly connected medially and are separated by midfrontal sulcus.