Paratrichius rufescens Ma, 1990

Ricchiardi, Enrico, Lu, Yuanyuan, Li, Sha & Ming, Bai, 2022, Notes on Paratrichius Janson, 1881 inhabiting Hainan Island, with description of a new species and the definition of two new junior synonyms (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae), Fragmenta entomologica 54 (1), pp. 133-142 : 141

Paratrichius rufescens Ma, 1990

Studied material. Type series. HT ♂ IZAS, China: Hainan, hilltop of Jianfengling , 700-1100 m, 27 Apr 1982, Gu Maobin legit . AT ♀ IZAS, Taiwan?: Rimongan F, 22 June 1935 .

Other studied material. 1♂ 1♀ ERPC, China: Hainan, Jianfeng, 2/ 25 Apr 1983, Gu Maobin legit. 2♂ 1♀ ERPC, China: Hainan,Wuzhishan,Diyifeng,9/ 11 Jun 2010, ZhouWenyi legit. 7♂ 3♀ IZAS, China: Hainan, Mt.Wuzhishan, Diyifeng ,

9/ 11 Jun 2010, IOZ(E)1945712-13;15-16;19-21;25-27), Zhou Wenyi legit. 1♂ 1♀ IZAS, Wuzhishan road to peak (18°89’N, 109°69’E), 1147 m, 10 Apr 2010, Lin Meiying legit.

Diagnosis. Ricchiardi (2020) compared this species with Paratrichius bartolozzii Ricchiardi, 2020 and Paratrichius hajeki Krajcik, 2010 , establishing the morphological relationships between them. Ma (1990), proposed as AT ♀ of P. rufescens a female apparently collected in Fujian (which was probably misinterpreted in the original description, since the original label seems to indicate that the specimen was collected in Taiwan), because of the red maculae on the elytron, a character present in the HT ♂, but the chalky pattern on pronotum and pygidium does not support her diagnosis (see Fig. 6 ) and we found that this female belongs to another species, to be more precisely identified in the future. We identified several females collected in Hainan as belonging to P. rufescens , and selected one of them for the redescription of the species presented below.

Redescription of female (differences from the male).

General. Length: about 12.5 mm, maximum width: about 5.1 mm. Body stockier than male, with protibia larger and abdomen not arched in lateral view.

Head. Black, reticulate, clypeus weakly shiny. Antennomeres mostly brown, with first club antennomere ful- vous. Antennal club of about same length as clypeus.

Pronotum. With posterior corners rounded, surface black, without pruinosity, matt, coarsely punctate-reticulate. Pronotal central longitudinal hollow absent and with thick, fulvous, moderately long setae on lateral margins and posterior corners.

Elytron. Black, matt, posterior part of juxtasutura scratched.

Pygidium. Black, with large band of pale-yellow chalky material along dorsal and lateral margins, but not reaching margins; covered with regularly scattered, medium-sized, fulvous setae, becoming longer at apex. Surface imbricate, scabrously imbricate into apical hollow. Deeply hollowed from about two-thirds of length to apex.

Ventrites. Black, ventrites 2-5 covered at centre with a continuous band of pale-yellow chalky material. Anal ventrite not hollowed and without chalky material.

Legs. External margin of metatibia with central tooth not very conspicuous. Tarsi more robust than in male.

Figures

Fig. 6 – Paratrichius rufescens Ma, 1990. ♀ Not type IZAS IOZ(E)1945727: A, dorsal habitus; B, ventral habitus; C, lateral habitus; D, pronotum & head; E, pygidium. “Paratrichius rufescens Ma, 1990” (in fact, belonging to another species) AT♀ IZAS: F, dorsal habitus; G, pygidium. Photographs by Yuanyuan Lu. ♀ ERPC Not type: H, dorsal habitus, Photograph by E. Ricchiardi.