Serica subansiriensis Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra, 2025

Gupta, Devanshu, Bhunia, Debika, Ahrens, Dirk & Chandra, Kailash, 2025, New species and records of Sericinae from India and Nepal (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), Zootaxa 5613 (2), pp. 371-385 : 377-379

Serica subansiriensis Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra , sp. nov.

( Fig. 2E–H )

Type locality. India: Arunachal Pradesh, Subansiri, Pange , 27.548 N, 93.890 E.

Type material. Holotype, ♂: “ India: Arunachal Pradesh, Subansiri, Pange , 27.548N, 93.89E, 17.vi.2017, leg. R.K. Kushwaha ” ( NZCI). The holotype specimen bears additionally a red printed label with the following text: “ Serica subansiriensis sp. nov., HOLOTYPE, Devanshu Gupta, Debika Bhunia, Dirk Ahrens & Kailash Chandra, Det. 2024”.

Description of the holotype. Length: 7.1 mm, length of elytra: 5.3 mm, width: 3.7 mm.

Body oblong, dark reddish brown, antenna yellowish, legs reddish brown; except head dorsal surface dull, sparsely setose.

Head. Labroclypeus slightly wider than long, widest at middle, lateral margins convex and convergent anteriorly and posteriorly; anterior angles weakly rounded, anterior margin deeply emarginate medially; margins strongly reflexed; surface flat and shiny, finely and densely punctate, with shallow transverse wrinkles on basal part, with numerous long, erect setae; frontoclypeal suture distinctly elevated, weakly curved; smooth area anterior to eye large and convex, approximately 1.5 times as wide as long; ocular canthus short and narrow (1/4 of ocular diameter), smooth, with one short terminal seta. Frons completely shiny and impressed behind frontoclypeal suture, with fine and moderately dense but irregularly scattered punctures, with a few erect setae beside eyes and behind frontoclypeal suture. Eyes very large, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.95. Antenna yellowish, with ten antennomeres; antennomeres three to seven transverse and short; club with three antennomeres, 1.7 times as long as remaining antennomeres combined and weakly reflexed. Mentum weakly elevated, anteriorly flattened. Labrum transverse, short, moderately produced, moderately emarginate medially.

Pronotum transverse, widest shortly anterior to middle, lateral margins in basal half deeply concave, convex and convergent in anterior half; anterior angles weakly produced and rounded, posterior angles nearly sharp; anterior margin strongly convex and with a robust marginal line; surface moderately densely and finely punctate, a few punctures laterally with short and adpressed setae, otherwise only with minute setae in punctures; anterior and lateral borders sparsely setose; hypomeron not carinate at base. Scutellum slender and long, triangular, finely and densely punctate, at base impunctate, glabrous.

Elytra oblong, widest at middle, striae distinctly impressed, finely and densely punctate, intervals flat, with fine, moderately dense punctures concentrated along striae, intervals with sparsely scattered, fine, short, adpressed, white setae, with a few dark, impunctate spots; epipleural edge fine, ending at moderately curved external apical angle of elytra; epipleura densely setose, apical border chitinous, without microtrichomes (magnification 100×). 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 punctate, 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: 1/1.44. Pygidium moderately convex and dull, finely and densely punctate, with smooth darker midline, with sparsely scattered, moderately dense, long setae.

Legs very slender and long; femora with two longitudinal rows of setae, between rows coarsely and not densely punctate; metafemur shiny, anterior margin acute, without a continuously serrated line behind anterior margin, ventral posterior margin serrated in apical half and not widened, dorsal posterior margin completely serrated, 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: 1/5.2, dorsally carinate, with two groups of spines, basal group well before middle, apical group at three quarters of metatibial length, basally with a few single robust setae; external face slightly longitudinally concave, nearly impunctate, with numerous longitudinal wrinkles; ventral margin serrated, with four robust, 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 distinctly longer than following two tarsomeres combined and twice as long as dorsal tibial spur. Protibia long, bidentate, external edge basally smooth, anterior claws asymmetrical, basal tooth of inner claw small and lobiform.

Aedeagus: Fig. 2E–G . Habitus: Fig. 2H .

Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Serica subansiriensis sp. nov. is very similar to Serica zianii Sreedevi, Speer, Fabrizi & Ahrens, 2018 and S. olivacea Brenske, 1896 in external appearance and genital morphology. The male genitalia in S. subansiriensis sp. nov. is well distinct from both: the parameres in S. subansiriensis sp. nov. are distinctly shorter compared to the phallobase, the right parameres is strongly reflexed at apex (lateral view), while it is almost flat in S. olivacea and weakly reflexed in S. zianii ; left parameres in S. zianii is distinctly shorter than in the other two species being less than half as long as the right paramere ( Ahrens 1999; figs 36, 37, p. 212; Sreedevi et al. 2018; figs 4E–H, p. 111).

Etymology. Serica subansiriensis sp. nov. is named after its type locality (adjective in nominative singular case).

Figures

FIGURE 2. A–D. Maladera lumlaensis Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra sp. nov.; E–H. Serica subansiriensis Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra sp. nov.; I–L. Maladera onam Gupta, Bhunia, Ahrens & Chandra sp. nov.. (A, E, I) Aedeagus in lateral view (left); (B, F, J) Aedeagus in dorsal view; (C, H, L) Aedeagus in lateral view (right); (D, H, L) Habitus, dorsal view. Scale 0.5 mm; habitus not to scale.