Monolepta albipunctata, Lei & Xu & Yang & Nie, 2021

Lei, Qi-long, Xu, Si-yuan, Yang, Xing-ke & Nie, Rui-E, 2021, Five new species of the leaf-beetle genus Monolepta Chevrolat (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae) from China, ZooKeys 1056, pp. 35-57 : 35

Monolepta albipunctata sp. nov.

Figs 1-10

Type material.

Holotype: China • ♂; Guangxi, Jinxiu, Luoxiang; 400 m; 14-V-1999; Xing-ke Yang leg. (IZAS). Paratypes: China • 1♂; same data as holotype • 1♀; Guangxi, Jinxiu, Luoxiang; 450 m; 30-VI-2000; Jun Chen leg. • 2♀♀; Guangxi, Jinxiu, Luoxiang; 400 m; 15-V-1999; Da-jun Liu leg. (all IZAS).

Description.

Length: 5.5-6.6 mm, width 2.7-3.7 mm. Holotype: length 6.6 mm, width 3.4 mm.

Head, pronotum, prothorax, scutellum, ventral side of mesothorax and metathorax, abdomen, and legs orange; clypeus and mouthparts black; antennae black except 1st segment paler; tibiae slightly dark orange, tarsi black; basal area of elytra orange, middle to apical area black with an oval white spot.

Vertex slightly convex, with transverse wrinkles, punctures obvious, space between punctures almost equal to diameter of punctures, each puncture with a seta; frontal tubercle obvious, not deeply divided by ecdysial suture, triangular, glabrous and with several large punctures near frontal area; antennae longer than half of body, 1st segment arc-shaped, length ratio of 2nd and 3rd segment 19: 18; length ratio of 4th and the combination of 2nd and 3rd 2: 1.

Pronotum transverse, pronotum around 1.6 times as broad as long; disc slightly convex, glabrous, shallowly depressed on each side, surface with irregular strong and fine punctures, each puncture with short seta.

Scutellum triangular, smooth and impunctate.

Elytra about 1.5 times as long as broad, basal part wider than pronotum; humeral angle obvious; two types of punctures in elytra: space between large punctures about 3 times as wide as diameter of puncture, small punctures irregularly distributed; epipleuron strongly narrowed after basal 1/3 and disappearing at the beginning of apex.

Ventral surface of mesothorax and metathorax covered with long setae. 1st segment of hind tarsi 1.9 times as long as remaining segments combined. Anterior coxal cavities open.

Male. Last ventrite of male with trilobite concavities. The median apical lobe of the last sternite around twice as broad as long (Fig. 5 ). Aedeagus very slender, almost parallel-sided from base to middle, suddenly narrowed before 1/2 part, rounded at apex, slightly curved towards ventral side (Fig. 9 ). Tectum extends almost to apex of aedeagus (Fig. 8 ).

Female. Last ventrite of female with very slight concavities. Spermathecal cornu slender, curved almost vertical, middle part short, curved, nodulus middle narrow. Ventral part of bursa sclerites slender, slightly undulate at outer side, dorsal pair slender, pointed at apex.

Etymology.

The specific epithet albipunctatus, - a, - um (meaning ‘white-spotted’) is a New Latin adjective formed from the Latin adjective albus, - a, - um ( ‘white’) and the New Latin adjective punctatus, - a, - um ( ‘punctate’, 'marked by spots or punctures’); it refers to the large white spots on the elytra of this species.

Distribution.

China: Guangxi.

Diagnosis.

This species is similar to M. postfasciata Gressitt & Kimoto, 1963, but the latter has a smaller body with an obvious T-shaped black spot on each elytron, whereas M. albipunctata sp. nov. has a larger body with two separate large, white, round spots on each elytron.

Figures

Figures 1 - 10. Monolepta albipunctata sp. nov. (holotype) 1 dorsal view 2 lateral view 3 frontal view 4 ventral view of 5 th ventrite, female 5 ditto, male 6 spermatheca 7 bursa sclerites 8 aedeagus, dorsal view 9 ditto, lateral view 10 ditto, ventral view. Scale bars: 1 mm (1 - 5, 8 - 10); 0.5 mm (6, 7).