Maladera hui Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, 2021

Fabrizi, Silvia, Liu, Wan-Gang, Bai, Ming, Yang, Xing-Ke & Ahrens, Dirk, 2021, A monograph of the genus Maladera Mulsant & Rey, 1871 of China (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), Zootaxa 4922 (1), pp. 1-400 : 306-308

Maladera hui Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n.

Figures 72 A–D, 127

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ China: Zhejiang, Lin’an City Daming Shan , 30°02’04’’N, 118°59’14’’E, light trap, 860 m, 7.VII.2014, Jia-Yao Hu leg./ 1083 Sericini Asia spec.” ( SNUC).

Description. Length: 8.6 mm, Length: of elytra 6.2 mm, width: 4.8 mm. Body oblong oval, dark brown, antenna yellowish, labroclypeus, anterior frons and pronotum shiny, remainder of dorsal surface dull, glabrous except a few long setae on head, pronotum and elytra.

Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and convergent to rounded anterior angles, lateral margin and ocular canthus producing an indistinct angle, margins weakly reflexed; anterior margin moderately emarginate medially; surface flat, shiny, densely, coarsely punctate, with few long, erect setae; frontoclypeal suture weakly elevated, finely incised and angled medially; smooth area in front of eye approximately twice as wide as long; ocular canthus short and wide, sparsely and finely punctate, with one terminal seta. Frons posteriorly dull, anteriorly shiny, with coarse, irregularly dense punctures, with a few single setae beside eyes. Eyes small, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.57. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club with three antennomeres, straight, 1.1 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum anteriorly elevated and flattened.

Pronotum moderately wide, widest at base, lateral margins in basal half subparallel, in anterior half moderately convex and evenly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles produced and sharp, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin convex, marginal line widely interrupted medially; surface finely and densely punctate, with minute setae in punctures; anterior and lateral margins sparsely setose, setae of anterior margin lacking in middle; hypomeron carinate. Scutellum wide, triangular, dull, with fine and dense punctures, each bearing a minute seta, impunctate along middle.

Elytra oblong, widest at posterior third, striae weakly impressed, finely and densely punctate, even intervals flat, with fine, dense punctures, odd intervals weakly convex, dense punctures concentrated along striae and with a few fine, erect, short setae, otherwise punctures with minute setae; epipleural margin robust, ending at the strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose, apical border membraneous, with a rim of short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface dull, metasternum and metacoxa with large and dense punctures, metasternal disc densely setose, metacoxa glabrous except for a several long setae laterally. Mesosternum between mesocoxae narrower than mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.38. Abdominal sternites dull, in addition to generally distributed fine and moderately dense punctures, each with a distinct transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a short and robust seta, punctures with microscopic setae, penultimate sternite apically with a shiny smooth chitinous border, which is half as long as sternite. Pygidium moderately convex, with fine dense punctures and minute setae in punctures, on apical half with a few long setae.

Legs moderately long and narrow; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and moderately densely punctate. Metafemur shiny, partly dull, anterior margin acute, lacking an adjacent serrated line, posterior ventral margin medially straight, weakly widened in apical half and not serrate, dorsally not serrated, finely setose. Metatibia moderately wide and long, widest at apex, ratio width/length: 1/3.4, dorsally moderately carinate, with two groups of spines, basal one shortly before middle, apical one at three quarters of metatibial length, with a few fine spines basally; lateral face longitudinally convex, with moderately dense and fine punctures, with minute setae in punctures; ventral margin serrate, with three equidistant spines; medial face impunctate, apex interiorly near tarsal articulation shallowly concave. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally, ventrally with sparse, short setae; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated ridge and smooth subventral longitudinal carina; first metatarsomere distinctly shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and little longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate. All claws symmetrical, feebly curved and long, with normally developed basal tooth.

Aedeagus: Fig. 72 A–C. Habitus: Fig. 72D . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Maladera hui Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n. is very similar to M. shenglongi Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n. in external appearance. However, in M. hui the left paramere is bifid (rather than trifid), and the right paramere is nearly as wide as long.

Etymology. This new species is named after its collector, Jia-Yao Hu, who made to us the specimens from Shanghai Normal University available for study (noun in the genitive singular case).

Distribution. See map ( Fig. 127 ) and Table 1.

Figures

FIGURE 72. A–D: Maladera hui Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype); E–H: M. zhejiangensisAhrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype). A, E: aedeagus, left side lateral view; C, G: aedeagus, right side lateral view; B, F: parameres, dorsal view; D, H: habitus. Scale: 0.5 mm. Habitus not to scale.

FIGURE 127. Distribution of the Maladera shenglongi group: Maladera hui sp. n., M. jatuai sp. n., M. maoershana sp. n., M. shenglongi sp. n., M. shoumanensis sp. n., M. xingkeyangi sp. n., M. zhejiangensis sp. n..