Serica (s. str.) basantapurensis, Sreedevi, Kolla, Speer, Jana, Fabrizi, Silvia & Ahrens, Dirk, 2018

Sreedevi, Kolla, Speer, Jana, Fabrizi, Silvia & Ahrens, Dirk, 2018, New species and records of Sericini scarab beetles from the Indian subcontinent (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae), ZooKeys 772, pp. 97-128 : 104-105

Serica (s. str.) basantapurensis sp. n. Figures 3 A–D, 5

Type material examined.

Holotype. ♂ "NEPAL, E, Therathum distr. N Basantapur 2650-2700m, 28/29.V.2016, leg. J. Schmidt 27°10'21"N, 87°25'14"E / 959 Sericini : Asia spec." (NME).

Description.

Length: 8.8 mm, length of elytra: 6.9 mm, width: 4.2 mm. Body oblong, dark brown, antenna yellowish, elytra, legs, and lateral pronotal margins reddish brown, with a few dark impunctate spots on elytra, dorsal surface dull; sparsely setose.

Labroclypeus narrowly subrectangular, slightly wider than long, widest at middle, lateral margins convex and moderately convergent anteriorly; anterior angles weakly rounded, anterior margin deeply and widely sinuate medially; lateral margins weakly reflexed, anterior margin strongly reflexed; surface flat and shiny, finely and densely punctate, without transverse wrinkles, with a few long, erect setae; frontoclypeal suture indistinctly incised, weakly convex; smooth area anterior to eye large and convex, approximately 1.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus very short and triangular (1/5 of ocular diameter), smooth, with one short terminal seta. Frons completely dull and flat, with fine and moderately dense punctures, with a few erect setae beside eyes and on disc. Eyes large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.83. Antenna yellowish with ten antennomeres; antennomeres three to five nearly as wide as long, antennomere six and seven transverse and short; club with three antennomeres, twice as long as remaining antennomeres combined and weakly reflexed. Mentum weakly elevated, anteriorly flattened. Labrum transverse, short, moderately produced, moderately sinuate medially.

Pronotum transverse, widest at base, lateral margins subparallel and straight, moderately convex and convergent anteriorly; anterior angles weakly produced and rounded, posterior angles moderately rounded; anterior margin strongly convexly and with a robust marginal line; surface moderately densely and finely punctate, a few punctures with white, short and appressed setae; anterior and lateral borders sparsely setose; hypomeron not carinate at base. Scutellum slender and long, triangular, finely and densely punctate, with a few adpressed setae.

Elytra oblong, widest in apical third, striae distinctly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals slightly convex, with fine, moderately dense punctures concentrated along striae, intervals with sparsely scattered fine, short, adpressed, white setae; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra; epipleura densely setose, apical border chitinous, without microtrichomes (magnification 100 x).

Ventral surface dull, finely and not densely punctate, moderately densely setose, metacoxa glabrous, with a few long setae only laterally; abdominal sternites finely and densely punctuate, with a transverse row of coarse punctures, each bearing a short seta. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.32. Pygidium weakly convex and dull, finely and densely punctate, with smooth midline, with sparsely scattered, moderately dense, long setae.

Legs very slender and long; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, coarsely and not densely punctate between the rows; metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior edge, posterior margin serrated ventrally in apical half and not widened, completely serrated dorsally, 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/ 5.1, dorsally sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at anterior third, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single robust setae; external face slightly longitudinally concave, very finely and sparsely punctate, with numerous longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with four robust nearly equidistant setae; medial face flat, glabrous and impunctate, apex interiorly near tarsal articulation distinctly but bluntly truncate. Tarsomeres ventrally with sparse, short setae, dorsally smooth; metatarsomeres laterally and dorsally carinate, with a strongly serrated ridge ventrally; first metatarsomere slightly shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and one third of its length longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia long, bidentate, external edge with numerous small teeth, anterior claws asymmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw lobiform and 3/4 as long as apical tooth which is straight.

Aedeagus: Fig. 3A-C. Habitus: Fig. 3D. Female unknown.

Diagnosis.

Serica basantapurensis sp. n. is in external and genital morphology very similar to S. bhaktai Ahrens, 1999 and S. narya Ahrens, 1999 from central Nepal and Darjeeling, respectively. The new taxon differs from the two by the apically wide right paramere (distinctly wider than in S. bhaktai ), whose median apex is not as deeply sinuated as in S. narya Ahrens, 1999.

Etymology.

The name (adjective in the nominative singular) refers to the type locality close to Basantapur (Nepal).