Chlorota cleidecostae, Medeiros & Grossi, 2020

Medeiros, Rone Andrews Freitas & Grossi, Paschoal Coelho, 2020, A new species of Chlorota Burmeister (Melolonthidae: Rutelinae: Rutelini) from Cerrado and Amazon biomes transition, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (Pap. Avulsos Zool., S. Paulo) 60 (26), pp. 1-7 : 2

Chlorota cleidecostae sp. nov.

( Figs. 2 A-C)

Type material: HOLOTYPE ♀ ( CERPE), labels: 1) “ Brasil, Maranhão, Carolina PARNA Chapada das Mesas, Ribeirão Estiva , 04-27.i.2014, armadilha suspensa, F.L. de Oliveira leg.”.

Diagnosis: Clypeus and frons densely punctate; apex of clypeus apex weakly acuminate; pre-mentum weakly emarginated at apex; pronotum with obsolete puncture, almost smooth; elytral interstriae with moderate deep puncture, interstriae with orange color; mesotibiae with two carinae; metatibiae with one carina; inner mesothoracic spur with one ventral carina; spurs of metathoracic legs with one ventral carina each.

Description

Female holotype, here designated: Total length 22.30 mm. Total width across humeri 11.35 mm, across elytral middle 11.75 mm.

Body: Shape ellipsoidal, dorsal surface convex, glabrous, venter almost flat, densely setose.

Color: Reddish-brown, shiny; elytra with orange longitudinal costae.

Head: Clypeus parabolic, apex weakly acuminate; surface densely punctate; punctures large, deep; frons with anterior puncture larger than medial and posterior punctures; vertex apparently smooth. Labrum bilobed, weakly emarginated, lobes with apical sulcus and a row of setae. Mandibles with rounded apex and outer sides weakly lobed. Last labial palpomere with truncate apex, and elliptical sensorial area on dorsal view; pre-mentum apex weakly emarginate. Antennae with 10 antennomeres, club about 1.3 times longer than antennomeres II-VII combined; dorsal area of scape with few, large, sparse punctures; pedicel subcylindrical, antennomere III subrectangular, IV-V subquadrate,VI-VII subconical.

Thorax: Anterior angles of pronotum rounded, posterior angles almost straight; disc convex, moderately punctured; punctures obsolete and more evident near anterior and posterior angles. Scutellum as long as wide, subtriangular, anterior margin straight, surface sparsely punctured.

Elytra: Length about 1.1 times longer than wider;surface with 10 elytral punctured interstriae ( Fig. 2A ); punctures moderate to large, deep, rounded to oblong, sometimes coalescent; interstriae almost smooth; odd interstriae dark orange; interstriae VII-VIII anteriorly incomplete and fused to each other near apex. Elytral surface just above epipleuron with a wide row of dense punctures at base, posterior punctures sparser than anterior punctures.

Venter: Mesosternal process subtriangular, apex glabrous, smooth, and rounded, obscured in lateral view; discrimen marked by a weak longitudinal line, not forked.

Abdomen: Sternites III-VI distinctly wrinkled at apex and with an anterior row of setose punctures, row interrupt- ed at middle; sternite VII transversely wrinkled and with scattered posterior setae near apex ( Fig. 2B ); sternite VIII rugopunctate, covered by small to long setae. Pygidium with strong wrinkles, apex with dense, medium-sized setae; small setae sparsely distributed in anterior and medial areas.

Legs: Metafemur strongly widened, more than two times wider than mesofemur ( Fig. 2C ), anterior margin convex, posterior margin moderately emarginated. Protibiae with three outer teeth, spur with 1.5 mm in length, 0.3 mm in width ( Fig. 2A ); mesotibiae with two transversal carinae, metatibiae with one transversal carina; inner spur of mesotibiae with one ventral carina, and each metatibial spur with one ventral carina.

Male: Unknown.

Etymology: We dedicate the new species to Professor Cleide Costa as a recognition of her tremendous work on Coleoptera systematics and friendship to the second author of this paper.

Remarks: The unique specimen of C.cleidecostae sp. nov. was collected in a suspended trap in canopy. This is also the first time that a Chlorota species was collected in Maranhão state (new state record) ( Fig. 1 ). Furthermore, this is the first species within the genus with elytral pattern with orange interstriae.

Figures

Figure 1. Geographical distribution of Chlorota species and subspecies in Brazil.

Figure 2. Chlorota species, habitus. (A-C) Female holotype of Chlorota cleidecostae sp. nov. (dorsal, ventral, lateral); (D) Holotype of Chlorota tristis Arrow, 1900 (image from Soula,2002a).