Procraerus giardinii, Platia & Pulvirenti, 2023

Procraerus giardinii n. sp.

( Fig. 8, 53, 63)

ZooBank:http://zoobank.org/ B7213AA0-3CC1-467B-9555-4C142BDBD91B

Holotype, ♂, Malaysia, Sarawak, Batu Tiban (Tibang Mount), 1400 m, E. Mjöberg ( NHRS).

Diagnosi s. – Species of the P.asper -group sensu Schimmel 1999,that can be compared with P.pauper (Candèze, 1878) it is easily separated for the shapeof pronotumwithmid-longitudinaldepression,longeranddivergent posterior angles, elytra notably tapering from base to the apices.

Description. – Male.

Moderately shiny.

Coloration. – Head and pronotum brown, elytra yellowish particularly around the base and the middle part of the disk, vaguely blackish after the middle towards the apices; covered with dense, recumbent, yellowish pubescence.

Head. – Frons moderately convex, anterior margin simple, shiny, moderately arcuate, directed downwards and just protruding above the clypeus; punctuation coarse with punctures strongly umbilicate, with shortest intervals or contiguous. – Antennae mutilated.

Pronotum. – 1.17x wider than long, widest at the apices of the posterior angles, convex with a mid-longitudinal, narrow depression, from the anterior third shallow to the basal slope where is deeper; sides from the middle suddenly tapering to the apices, distinctly sinuate before the posterior angles, the latter, long, acuminate, strongly divergent, unicarinate; carina well distinct, short, slightly divergent from the lateral margins, the latter complete and distinctly visible in the first half in a dorsal view; punctuation very dense and uniformly distributed; punctures umbilicate, with shortest, shiny, intervals or contiguous on all the surface. ( Fig. 53).

Scutellum . – Shield-shaped, ridged at base, slightly convex, strongly punctured.

Elytra. – 3.1xlongerthanpronotum and2.7xlongerthan wide,justnarrower than the pronotum at base, sides notably and regularly tapering from the base to the apices, the latter rounded and with a trace of mucron;striae regularly marked and punctured, interstriae flat to sub-convex with finer punctuation.

Aedeagus. – As in the Fig. 8 (length 1.75 mm).

Size. – Length 11.0 mm, width 2.9 mm.

Female. – Unknown.

Etymology. – This taxon is dedicated to the paleobotanist Marco Giardini for his central contribution in the botanical education of the second author, who is a dear friend of him.