Lepidoserica barapaniensis Chandra, Ahrens, Bhunia, Sreedevi & Gupta, 2021

Chandra, Kailash, Ahrens, Dirk, Bhunia, Debika, Sreedevi, Kolla & Gupta, Devanshu, 2021, New species and records of Sericini from India (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae Melolonthinae), Zootaxa 4951 (3), pp. 492-510 : 498-500

Lepidoserica barapaniensis Chandra, Ahrens, Bhunia, Sreedevi & Gupta , new species

( Figs. 17–20 )

Type locality. India: Meghalaya, Umiam, Barapani , 996 m, 25° 40’ 1.2936’’ N, 91° 54’ 17.1072’’ E .

Type material. Holotype, male: “ India: Meghalaya, Umiam, Barapani , 996 m, 25° 40’ 1.2936’’ N, 91° 54’ 17.1072’’ E 21.vi.2019, leg. Niranjan /1071 Sericini: Asia spec./ICAR–NBAIR– S17” ( NBAIR). The specimen bears a red printed label: “ Maladera barapaniensis sp. nov., HOLOTYPE, Kailash Chandra, Dirk Ahrens, Debika Bhunia, Kolla Sreedevi & Devanshu Gupta, Det. 2020”.

Description (holotype, male).

Body. Length: 8.3 mm, length of elytra: 5.9 mm, width: 4.7 mm. Body oblong, yellowish-brown and shiny, dorsal face with dense darker spots of different size, dark spots and dark frons with some greenish shine; antenna yellow; dorsal surface sparsely setose, with fine minute and white scales on elytra and pronotum.

Head. Labroclypeus subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins convex and convergent to strongly rounded anterior angles, lateral margin and ocular canthus producing a distinct obtuse angle, anterior margin concavely emarginate, margins weakly reflexed; labrum elongate and medially produced; surface flat and shiny, basal quarter with iridescent toment, finely and densely punctate, with a few long erect setae behind anterior margin; frontoclypeal suture indistinctly incised, flat and moderately curved; smooth area anterior to eye twice as wide as long. Ocular canthus moderately long and narrow, impunctate, without a short terminal seta. Frons with iridescent dark toment, finely and densely punctate, with numerous fine, short setae being bent backwards. Eyes moderately large, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.61. Antenna with ten antennomeres, club with six antennomeres, straight, as long as remaining antennomeres combined, basal labella shorter than club. Mentum elevated and flattened anteriorly.

Pronotum widest at base, lateral margins weakly convex and weakly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles weakly produced, well rounded, posterior angles nearly rectangular; anterior margin straight, with a fine marginal line; basal margin without marginal line; surface with dense and fine punctures, each bearing a minute seta or a short, white scale, along basal midline impunctate; anterior and lateral borders sparsely finely setose; hypomeron carinate, basal margin of hypomeron strongly produced ventrally. Scutellum subtriangular, apex sharp, with fine and very dense punctures and with fine white scales, impunctate along midline.

Elytra oblong, widest in posterior third, striae distinctly impressed, with fine and dense punctures; intervals convex, with fine and moderately dense punctures concentrated along striae, punctures on all intervals with short white scales, otherwise punctures with minute setae only; epipleural edge moderately strong, ending at strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra, epipleura sparsely setose; apical border without a rim of short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface shiny and yellow, with fine and dense punctures, finely and densely setose, metacoxa glabrous, only laterally with a few fine, adpressed setae. Abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate and minutely setose, each sternite with a distinct transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a short, robust seta, abdominal sternites without any tubercles or elevations. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.88. Pygidium moderately convex and moderately shiny, with fine, dense punctures and fine short and longer setae.

Legs moderately long and narrow. Metafemur dull, anterior edge acute, without adjacent serrated line, anterior longitudinal row of setae present; posterior ventral margin almost straight, weakly widened in apical half not serrate, dorsal posterior margin serrated, glabrous. Metatibia moderately long and wide, widest at before apex; flattened, ratio width/length: 1/3.3, dorsal margin sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal one at middle and apical one at three-quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few fine and short setae; lateral face flat and weakly longitudinally conave, without punctures; medial face impunctate, apex shallowly and concavely emarginate interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally, with dense, fine setae ventrally. Meso- and metatarsomeres lacking in holotype. Protibia short, bidentate. Anterior claws symmetrical.

Aedeagus. Figs. 17–19 . Habitus. Fig. 20 .

Female unknown.

Etymology. The new species is named after its type locality, Barapani (adjective in the nominative case singular).

Distribution. Only known from the type locality ( Fig. 21 ). However, Lepidoserica barapaniensis new species occurs nearly sympatrically with Lepidoserica maculifera (Brenske, 1894) in central Meghalaya, while the latter is widely distributed over nearly all Khasi Hills.

Differential diagnosis. Lepidoserica barapaniensis new species differs from the very similar to Lepidoserica maculifera (Brenske, 1894) in the shape of parameres: right paramere is basally much more widened ( Figs. 17–19 ). However, none of the specimens of the latter (and neither in L. polyphylla (Moser, 1920)) have such a widened base of right paramere as found in Lepidoserica barapaniensis new species.

Figures

FIGURE 21. Map of India showing type localities of the newly described species.

FIGURES 13–20. 13–16. Maladera tripuraensis new species; 17–20. Lepidoserica barapaniensis new species. (13, 17) Aedeagus in lateral view (left); (14, 18) Parameres in dorsal view; (15, 19) Aedeagus in lateral view (right); (16, 20) Habitus, dorsal view. Scale 0.5 mm; habitus not to scale.