Serica (Serica) cuona 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 : 16-17

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

Fig. 5A–G

Type material examined. Holotype ♂ [ China] “ Cuona , Xizang, 8.VIII.1974, 2500m, leg. Huang Fusheng / Asia Sericini 1324 spec.” ( IZAS).

Description of holotype. Length: 7.5 mm, length of elytra: 5.5 mm, width: 3.4 mm. Body oblong, yellowish brown, frons, disc of pronotum and abdomen dark brown, legs and antenna yellow, elytra with dense, small dark spots, dorsal surface shiny and almost glabrous.

Labroclypeus as wide as long, somewhat heart-shaped, widest at middle, lateral margin strongly convex and convergent anteriorly and posteriorly, anterior angles strongly rounded, anterior margin moderately emarginate medially, margins strongly reflexed; surface slightly convex at center, shiny, finely and densely punctate, with numerous long, erect setae; frontoclypeal suture distinct, elevated, and weakly bent at middle; smooth area anterior to eye in 45° to the main body axis, as wide as long, its surface strongly convex; ocular canthus extremely short and narrow (1/10 of ocular diameter), smooth, without short terminal seta. Frons slightly transversely impressed behind frontoclypeal suture and with a weak median keel, entirely shiny; surface with fine and dense punctures, with a few fine, long setae beside eyes. Eyes moderately large, ratio diameter/interocular width: 0.7. Antenna with nine antennomeres; footstalk of antenna long, antennomere five extended and long, five times as long as wide; club with three antennomeres, as long as remaining antennomeres combined and straight; distal antennomeres of club increasingly shorter than the basal one. Mentum elevated and anteriorly flattened. Labrum transverse, short, not produced, narrowly emarginate medially.

Pronotum narrow, heart-shaped, widest at middle, concavely narrowed basally, in anterior half lateral margins convex and strongly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles weakly produced and blunt, posterior angles blunt; anterior margin medially moderately convex, anterior marginal line robust and complete; surface densely and finely punctate, partly with transverse wrinkles, on disc partly irregularly impunctate, glabrous; anterior and lateral margins sparsely setose with long fine setae; hypomeron carinate. Scutellum slender and long, triangular, shiny, finely and densely punctate, glabrous.

Elytra oblong, widest at apical quarter, striae weakly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals flat, with fine, moderately dense punctures concentrated along striae, partly with transverse superficial wrinkles, dark spots completely smooth; sutural and most external intervals with a few single, sparse, long, fine setae, otherwise glabrous; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura glabrous, apical border chitinous, without membranous rim of fine microtrichomes (magnification 100x).

Ventral surface shiny, finely and densely punctate, metasternum partly densely setose, metacoxa glabrous, with a few short setae only laterally; abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate, with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a short, robust seta, otherwise glabrous. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.44. 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: 1/5.6; dorsal margin not carinate but longitudinally convex, with two groups of spines, basal group at basal third, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single, robust setae; lateral face longitudinally convex, impunctate but superficially coarsely wrinkled, glabrous; ventral margin serrated, with two widely separated robust setae; medial face flat, impunctate and glabrous; apex interiorly near tarsal articulation sharply truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, minute setae, dorsally impunctate but with a few fine 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 long, bidentate, external teeth indistinct; external margin almost smooth; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of both claws wide and abruptly, bluntly truncated.

Aedeagus: Fig. 5A–D . Habitus: Fig. 5E, G . Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Serica cuona new species differs from S. arborea Ahrens, 1999 by the distinctly longer right paramere, whose apical narrowed portion is longer; the phallobase of S. cuona new species is lateroventrally more strongly widened.

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

Figures

FIGURE 5. A–G: Serica cuona new species (holotype); H–M: S. hongyii new species (holotype); A, J: aedeagus, left side lateral view; D, M: aedeagus, right side lateral view; C, K: parameres, dorsal view; B, L: aedeagus, dorsal view; E, H: habitus, dorsal view; G, I: habitus, lateral view; F: head, dorsal view. Scale bar: 0.5 mm. Habitus images not to scale.