Archeohomaloplia volkovitchi, Introduction, 2023

Introduction, Dirk Ahrens, 2023, Two new species of Archeohomaloplia Nikolajev, 1982 from China (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Sericini), Bonn zoological Bulletin 72 (1), pp. 55-61 : 57-58

Archeohomaloplia volkovitchi sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:09195EA9-D30C-455C-8A60-68CB0E656644

Fig. 1

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “ Yunnan 70km NNW Xiajuan 24.V.2002 Volkovitch / Asia Sericini sp 1159” ( ZIN). Paratypes: 1 ♂, 1 ♀ “Yunnan 70km NNW Xiajuan 20.V.2002 Volkovitch ” ( ZIN, ZFMK).

Description. Length: 5.9 mm, length of elytra: 4.0 mm, width: 3.1 mm. Body oblong, black, antenna black, dorsal surface shiny, with a few sparse short setae on elytra, otherwise glabrous.

Labroclypeus trapezoidal, widest at base and strongly convergent apically, lateral margins convex; anterior angles almost blunt, weakly rounded; lateral border and ocular canthus producing a blunt angle; margins moderately reflexed, anterior margin moderately emarginate medially; surface medially convex and moderately shiny, finely and densely punctate, distance between punctures less than their diameter, with a few robust punctures behind anterior margin bearing each a long, erect seta; frontoclypeal suture weakly incised and moderately curved; smooth area in front of eye approximately 1.3× as wide as long; ocular canthus short and wide, subtriangular, rounded at apex, finely and densely punctate, without terminal seta. Frons shiny, with fine, dense punctures; with a single seta at the end of frontoclypeal suture beside eyes. Eyes small, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.51. Antenna brown, with ten antennomeres; club yellow, with three antennomeres, little longer than remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum weakly elevated and flattened anteriorly.

Pronotum moderately wide, widest at middle, lateral margins strongly curved and slightly convergent basally, but stronger convergent anteriorly; anterior angles strongly produced and sharp, posterior angles strongly rounded and almost obsolete; anterior margin convexly produced medially, with a broad marginal line; lateral basal margin with marginal line, otherwise without margin; surface with dense and fine punctures, glabrous and only with minute setae in punctures; anterior and lateral borders densely setose; hypomeron simple, not carinate at base and consequently not ventrally produced. Scutellum triangular and shiny, slightly longer than wide, with fine and dense punctures, with minute setae in punctures.

Elytra oblong, widest in apical third, striae weakly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals weakly convex, with fine, moderately dense punctures often concentrated along the striae, odd intervals with single, fine, short, yellow setae; interior apical angle of elytra with a short seta; epipleural edge fine ending at the strongly curved external apical angle of elytra, epipleura densely setose; apical border of elytra with a narrow membraneous rim of short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface shiny, with fine and moderately dense punctures, finely densely setose; metacoxa glabrous with a few fine, long, adjacent setae laterally only; abdominal sternites micro-reticulate, with an indistinct, transverse row of coarse punctures bearing a moderately long seta between fine, dense punctation, a few fine punctures bear a short seta; penultimate sternite apically with a smooth, sclerotized border which is one fifth as long as the sternite, last sternite medially 0.75 × as long as penultimate one. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur, with fine, long setae. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.44. Pygidium moderately evenly convex, finely and sparsely punctate, without smooth midline; surface shiny, only at apex with short setae.

Legs slender and moderately long; femora shiny, with two longitudinal rows of setae, coarsely but sparsely punctate; metafemur sharply carinate anteriorly and without a submarginal serrate line, posterior margin weakly convex and with a few short setae basally, its ventral part only weakly widened in apical half and not serrate, dorsal posterior margin not serrate, with dense, long setae. Metatibia slender and moderately long, evenly widened towards apex, ratio width/length: 1/3.2; dorsal margin sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group at first quarter, apical group at two thirds of metatibial length, basally with a few single, fine setae; external face longitudinally convex, with coarse and dense punctures laterally, glabrous; ventral margin with a sharp, finely serrate margin, with four robust setae; internal face laterally with a few punctures bearing each a fine seta; apex interiorly deeply excavate at middle and not truncate near tarsal articulation. Meso- and metatarsomeres dorsally glabrous and finely densely punctate, ventrally with sparse, short setae; metatarsomeres ventrally with a finely serrate ridge, beside it with a robust longitudinal carina; metatarsomere 1 as long as following tarsomere and slightly longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate, protarsal claws symmetric.

Aedeagus: Fig. 1F–H . Habitus: 1I.

Diagnosis. Archeohomaloplia volkovitchi sp. nov. differs from all other Archeohomaloplia species by the complexly shaped dorsal apophysis of the phallobase which is bent several times around its axis.

Etymology. The species is named in honor of its collector V. Volkovitch (noun genitive case singular).

Variation. Length: 5.9–6.1 mm, length of elytra: 4.0– 4.4 mm, width: 3.1–3.3 mm. Female: Antennal club distinctly shorter than the remaining antennomeres combined, eyes little smaller than in male: ratio of diameter/ interocular width: 0.42; pygidium almost flat, impunctate in apical half, with a fine microstructure.

Figures

Fig 1. A–E. Archeohomaloplia xiajuan sp. nov. (holotype). F–I. Archeohomaloplia volkovitchi sp. nov., holotype. A, F. Aedeagus, left side lateral view. D, H. Aedeagus, right side lateral view.B, G.Aedeagus, dorsal view.C. Parameres, ventral view.E, I. Habitus (not to scale). Scale: 0.5 mm.