Morimospasma ( Morimospasma ) jii, Lin & Yang & Wang & Xie, 2025

Morimospasma ( Morimospasma) jii sp. nov.

Chinese common name: ḜK巨ª天+

http://zoobank.org/ D23DC2AC-01DE-4E7C-A90C-92919C080519

( Figs 1A–D View FIGURE 1 , 2A–B View FIGURE 2 , 3A–D View FIGURE 3 )

Description. Male: ( Figs 1A–B View FIGURE 1 , 2A View FIGURE 2 ). Body length: 14.9 mm, humeral width: 8.6 mm.

Body dark brown. Head, prothorax and elytra mostly clothed with appressed brown pubescence, with sparse appressed greyish-white and yellow setae. Antenna clothed with brown appressed pubescence mixed with yellow and greyish-white appressed pubescence in the basal fourth segments. Pronotum clothed with brown appressed pubescence mixed with appressed yellow and greyish-white pubescence, fringed with dense short yellow hairs at anterior and posterior margins; basal middle decorated with an obviously short light brown longitudinal stripe.

Scutellum densely covered with yellowish pubescence except for the glabrous midline. Elytra mostly clothed with appressed brown pubescence, extremely densely on declivital portion. Ventral surface sparsely covered with short appressed brown and yellow setae. Legs clothed with sparse appressed greyish-white and yellow setae, more densely on apical half of tibiae.

Head with frons short, transverse, with a well-marked longitudinal median sulcus, slightly convex, with sparse and coarse punctation; vertex slightly concave. Eyes coarsely faceted and deeply emarginate; gena distinctly longer than lower eye lobe. Antennae slightly longer than body, 1.3 times as long as body; antennomere 8 surpassing elytral apex, antennal tubercles elevated, widely separated from each other; scape cylindrical, slightly longer than antennomere 3, coarsely punctate, with an inconspicuous apical cicatrix; antennomere 3 slightly longer than 4, measuring 1.1 times its length; antennomeres 4–10 gradually shortening in length; antennomere 11 sharply pointed apically, nearly equal in length to 6.

Pronotum wider than long, 1.1 times as long as basal width, 1.0 times as long as apical width, with a lateral spine before middle, subacute apically, slightly directed backward; disc with three prominent swellings: a pair of larger, more prominent lateral ones, and a single posteromedian swelling; surface densely covered with wrinkled punctures.

Scutellum triangular, slightly rounded at apex.

Elytra elongate-oval, 1.9 times as long as humeral width, 1.4 times as long as elytral maximum width, steeply declivous at apical 4/9; humeri slightly produced laterally, slightly oblique outwardly toward the middle, then nearly parallel to the apical third, then oblique toward the apex, with the apex obtusely rounded; disc with differently sized tubercles; each elytron forming three longitudinal carinae of tubercles: first located at basal middle and extending to middle, with its tubercle largest and subelliptical; second extending from central basal third to apical 4/9, with a largest terminal tubercle that is lunate or rounded-triangular; third situated behind humerus, extending to apical fifth; several tubercles of varying sizes arranged both intercarinally and between carina and suture; each elytron supplemented with a large compound tubercle (formed by fusion of 2–3 smaller tubercles) at apical fourth, surrounded by several inconspicuous minor tubercles.

Prosternal process narrow, lower than coxae, gradually widening at apex; procoxal cavities slightly opened posteriorly. Mesosternal process without tubercle; mesocoxal cavities opened externally to mesepimera. Abdominal ventrite 1 longest; distal abdominal ventrite distinctly concave, nearly straight at apical margin.

Legs moderately long; metafemora slightly extending to abdominal apex; first metatarsomer slightly shorter than the following two tarsomeres combined; claws divergent.

Male genitalia ( Fig 3A–D View FIGURE 3 ). Tergite VIII transverse, nearly truncate apically, 0.8 times as long as wide, clothed with sparse and short setae at sides, the setae slightly long and dense at middle; spiculum relictum shorter than half of spiculum gastrale. Tegmen slightly bent in lateral view; paramere moderately long, 1.1 times as long as wide, bearing moderately dense setae near apex. Median lobe curved; ventral plate rounded at apex. Endophallus long, mostly membranous

Female ( Figs 1C–D View FIGURE 1 , 2B View FIGURE 2 ). Body length: 13.2 mm, humeral width: 4.2 mm. Similar to male, but body distinctly broader; antennae 1.1 times as long as body, with scape longest; pronotum 1.1 times as long as basal width; elytra 1.6 times as long as humeral width. Abdominal ventrite 5 distinctly triangularly emarginate at apex; ventrites 1–4 fringed with rather long brownish-yellow pubescence along apical margins.

Material examined. Holotype male, China: Chongqing Municipality, Shizhu County, Shazi Town , Dayakou , alt. 1,700 m, May 25, 2025, coll. by Shijie Ji and Xuetong Yang . Paratypes: two females, same data as the holotype ; one female, China: Chongqing Municipality, Shizhu County, Shazi Town , Dayakou , alt. 1,700 m, May 18, 2025, coll. by Linfeng Yuan and Bei Zhang .

Distribution. China ( Chongqing).

Remarks. The new species has been assigned to the nominotypical subgenus based on the following diagnostic characteristics: elytra with humeri obliquely prominent, bearing a large conical tubercle with a sharply pointed apex; each elytron with a series of tubercles forming three prominent carinae.

This new species is distinctly different from the following species or subspecies of the same subgenus, M. ( M.) chinense chinense (Breuning, 1942) , M. ( M.) chinense orientala Bi, 2021 , M. ( M.) superciliatum superciliatum (Pu, 1997) , and M. ( M.) superciliatum asperum Bi, 2021 by the complete absence of distinct black maculae on the elytra.

Additionally, this new species is clearly distinguished from other species or subspecies in the same subgenus by having three distinct tubercles on the pronotum, rather than a single large tubercle.

Etymology. The new species is named after Mr. Shijie Ji (Chengdu, China), in appreciation of his generosity in offering the specimens to be described.