Miridiba lamellata Gao & Fang, 2019

Gao, Chuan-bu & Coca-Abia, María Milagro, 2021, Revision of the genus Miridiba Reitter, 1902 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae): genital morphotypes and new taxonomic data, European Journal of Taxonomy 749, pp. 1-94 : 82-83

Miridiba lamellata Gao & Fang, 2019

Miridiba (Pledina) lamellata Gao & Fang in Gao et al., 2019: 459 , figs 1–18 (type loc.: Gui Yang city, Guizhou Province, China).

Diagnosis

See Gao et al. (2019).

Remarks

Gao et al. (2019) described Miridiba (Pledina) lamellata based on the male holotype only, deposited in the collection of Shenyang Agricultural University of China. This species was included in the subgenus Pledina based on the antenna 10-segmented ( Gao et al. 2019), without specifying the features of M. lamellata shared with M. sinensis (type species of Pledina ), which would justify considering this new species in the subgenus. We have studied herein M. sinensis that, together with M. pseudosinensis , M. axanensis and M. quasisinensis , constitute the morphotype V “ Sinensis ”, candidate to be subgenus Pledina (see Discussion and Conclusions), and we have not found enough similarities to consider M. lamellata belonging to morphotype V “ Sinensis ”. The antenna 10-segmented, the only character considered by Gao et al. (2019) to classify this new species in the subgenus Pledina , is shared by many other Miridiba species , those included herein in morphotypes II to VIII, and even by many other species of Holotrichia . Therefore, this character is not enough to consider M. lamellata belonging to Pledina . In addition to that, this new species can be separated from M. sinensis by the branches of parameres and setae on mentum and pygidium ( Gao et al. 2019: figs 9, 14–17), both species are so different that M. lamellata cannot be considered belonging to Pledina . Likewise, the mentum and labrum of M. lamellata differ from those of Miridiba . Unlike Miridiba , the new species has the mentum with sparse pubescence on the anterior part, and the labrum more strongly depressed at its ventral part than at dorsal one ( Gao et al. 2019: figs 5, 9). Therefore, the second author of this paper has doubts about inclusion of M. lamellata in the genus Miridiba . However, taking into account that the first author of this paper is one of the authors of the species and the second author has not studied it, M. lamellata is considered a species incertae sedis of Miridiba .

Distribution

China (Guizhou).