Gynaecoserica felina ( Arrow, 1946 ), 2009

Ahrens, Dirk & Fabrizi, Silvia, 2009, A review of the genus Gynaecoserica Brenske, 1896 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Sericini), Journal of Natural History 43 (25 - 26), pp. 1505-1584 : 1542-1544

Gynaecoserica felina ( Arrow, 1946)

( Figure 10B )

Serica felina Arrow, 1946: 9 ; Ahrens 1996: 32.

Type material examined

Lectotype (here designated): Ƌ “N.E. Burma Kambaiti 7000 ft. 19/4.1934 R. Malaise” ( NHRS) . Paralectotype: 1 ♀ “N.E. Burma Kambaiti 7000 ft. 5/4.1934 R. Malaise ” ( NHRS) , 2 ♀♀ “N.E. Burma Kambaiti 2000 m 23,24/5.1934 Malaise”

( NHRS), 1 Ƌ, 1 ♀ “N.E. Burma Kambaiti 7000 ft. 12/4.1934 R.Malaise/ N.E. Burma R. Malaise B.M. 1945–71./ Cotype” ( BMNH) .

Redescription (lectotype)

Length 4.8 mm, length of elytra 3.75 mm, width 2.9 mm. Body oblong, dorsal surface yellowish brown with dark spots and dull, very sparsely setose.

Labroclypeus subrectangular, widest at base, lateral margins basally subparallel, anterior angles strongly rounded, lateral border and ocular canthus producing a distinct blunt angle, margins weakly reflexed, anterior margin straight; surface very weakly convex medially and shiny, finely and densely punctate, distance between punctures less than their diameter, with a few coarser punctures behind anterior margin bearing each a long, erect seta; frontoclypeal suture feebly incised and slightly elevated, medially moderately curved; smooth area in front of eye approximately as wide as long; ocular canthus short and moderately slender, finely and densely punctate, with a short terminal seta. Frons shiny, only posteriorly dull, with fine, dense punctures, glabrous. Eyes moderately large, ratio of diameter: interocular width 0.43. Antenna yellow, with 10 antennomeres; club with five antennomeres, little longer than the remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum weakly elevated and flattened anteriorly.

Pronotum moderately wide, widest at base, lateral margins straight and subparallel in basal half, in anterior half weakly curved and stronger convergent anteriorly, anterior angles strongly produced and sharp, posterior angles blunt, anterior margin weakly produced medially, with a fine marginal line, basal margin without marginal line; surface with moderately dense and fine punctures, with a few white, scale-like setae on lateral disc, each puncture bears a minute seta; anterior and lateral borders thinly setaceous; hypomeron distinctly margined at base but not ventrally produced. Scutellum long and narrow, triangular, with fine and very dense punctures, medially widely smooth, microscopic setae present in the punctures.

Elytra moderately long, widest in apical third, striae feebly impressed and finely and densely punctate, intervals almost flat, with fine, sparsely scattered punctures concentrated along the striae, odd intervals with a few white scale-like setae, interior apical angle of elytra with a strong seta; epipleural edge fine ending at the strongly curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura sparsely setaceous, apical border without short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface dull, with fine and moderately dense punctures, sparsely setose, metacoxa with a few strong adjacent setae laterally only; each abdominal sternite with indistinct transverse row of coarse punctures bearing short setae between fine, dense punctation, penultimate sternite apically with a shiny smooth sclerotized border, which is one-sixth as long as sternite, last sternite medially almost as long as penultimate one. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur, with irregularly scattered very strong setae. Ratio of length of metepisternum: metacoxa: 1: 1.3. Pygidium strongly convex at middle, coarsely and moderately densely punctate, without smooth midline, surface dull, with a few long robust setae beside the apical margin.

Legs slender and moderately long; femora dull, with two longitudinal rows of setae, finely and sparsely punctate; metafemur dull, sharply margined anteriorly and without a submarginal serrate line, posterior margin weakly convex and glabrous, its external part only weakly widened in apical half and not serrate, internally very finely serrate, with a few long setae. Metatibia slender and moderately long; uniformly widened toward apex, ratio width: length: 1: 3.75, dorsally longitudinally convex, only at apex indistinctly carinate; with two groups of spines, basal group at one-third, apical group at two-thirds of metatibial length; basally with a few single, fine spines in the punctures; external face longitudinally convex, with dense, fine punctures, glabrous; ventrally edged and serrate, with three strong equidistant spines, internal face finely sparsely punctate and smooth, apex interiorly near tarsal articulation sharply and deeply truncate. Tarsomeres dorsally glabrous and impunctate, ventrally with sparse, short setae; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrate ridge, beside which is a fine longitudinal carina, first metatarsomere little shorter than the following two tarsomeres combined and twice as long as the upper tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, protarsal claws symmetric.

Aedeagus (lectotype), see Ahrens (1996): figs 87–98.

Variation

Antennal club in female composed of three antennomeres, distinctly shorter than the remaining antennomeres combined.

Remarks

No number of syntypes was given on which the description was based in the original description by Arrow (1946), so the specimen which was figured in Ahrens (1996) is designated here as lectotype. The species is so far known only from northern Myanmar ( Figure 10B ).

Figures

Figure 10. Distribution of Gynaecoserica species (A, upper panel; B, lower panel). “?” indicates the rather imprecise type locality (Tenasserim) of G. jelineki sp. nov. in Myanmar.