Maladera ( Hemiserica ) subinaequalis Sreedevi & Ahrens, 2025

Maladera ( Hemiserica) subinaequalis Sreedevi & Ahrens View in CoL , sp. nov.

( Figs. 2A–E View FIGURE 2 )

Type locality. INDIA: Tamil Nadu, Dindigul, Thandikudi , 10°18’N; 77°38’E.

Type material examined. Holotype, ♂: “ INDIA: Tamil Nadu, Dindigul, Thandikudi , 10°18’N; 77°38’E, 10.ix.2010, leg. Mahendra R /SER11/ICAR-NBAIR/S24” ( NBAIR). GoogleMaps

The specimen bears a red printed label: Maladera ( Hemiserica) subinaequalis sp. n., HOLOTYPE, Kolla Sreedevi and Dirk Ahrens, Det. 2025.

Description of the holotype, male. Length: 9.2 mm, length of elytra: 6.5 mm, width: 5.0 mm. Body short oval, reddish brown, antenna yellow, labroclypeus shiny, remainder of dorsal surface dull with white short setae, denser in frontoclypeal region.

Head. Labroclypeus trapezoidal, distinctly wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins straight and strongly convergent to moderately rounded anterior angles, lateral margin and ocular canthus producing an indistinct angle, margins weakly reflexed, anterior margin distinctly emarginate medially; surface transversely convex, shiny, finely and very densely, rugosely punctate, distance between punctures smaller than their diameter, with a few erect setae anteriorly; frontoclypeal suture feebly incised and weakly curved; smooth area anterior to eye twice as wide as long; ocular canthus short and wide, finely scarcely punctate, with a few terminal setae. Frons dull, with fine, sparse punctures, glabrous except for a few setae beside eyes. Eyes small, ratio of diameter/interocular width: 0.45. Antenna with ten antennomeres; club with three antennomeres slightly as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and flattened anteriorly.

Pronotum transverse, widest at middle, lateral margins in basal half straight and nearly subparallel, in anterior half moderately convex and evenly narrowed towards strongly produced and sharp anterior angles; anterior margin weakly convex, with complete and fine marginal line, posterior angles blunt; basal margin without marginal line; surface moderately finely and densely punctate, punctures with microscopic setae only; anterior and lateral margins setose; hypomeron carinate but not produced ventrally. Scutellum wide, triangular, with fine and moderately dense punctures along the lateral margins, without smooth midline.

Elytra oblong, widest at middle, striae distinct, finely and sparsely punctate, intervals weakly convex, with fine, moderately dense and almost evenly distributed punctures; penultimate lateral interval with a few sparse, fine, white, short setae, remainder of elytral punctures with sparse, slender, brown, long setae; epipleural margin robust, ending at widely rounded external apical angle of elytra, epipleura sparsely setose, apical border narrowly membranous, apex covered with short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface moderately shiny, metasternum and metacoxa with large, fine and dense punctures, sparsely setose; metacoxa glabrous except for numerous long setae laterally; abdominal sternites finely and densely punctate, some punctures with very short or minute setae, each sternite with a distinct transverse row of coarse punctures each bearing a short brown seta, penultimate sternite apically with a wide shiny smooth chitinous border of half sternite length. Mesosternum between mesocoxae as wide as mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.29. Pygidium moderately convex, dull, finely and moderately densely punctate, glabrous except a few short setae apically.

Legs moderately wide; femora finely and sparsely punctate, with two longitudinal rows of setae. Metafemur wide, dull, anterior margin acute, lacking an adjacent serrated line, surface very sparsely and superficially punctate, anterior row of setae complete; posterior ventral margin feebly concave medially, moderately widened in apical half and not serrate apically, posterior margin dorsally not serrated, glabrous. Metatibia shiny, wide and short, widest just behind middle, ratio width/length: 1/2.9, dorsal margin sharply carinate, with two groups of spines, basal one at anterior third, apical one at two thirds of metatibial length, beside dorsal margin basally with one or two fine setae; lateral face weakly longitudinally convex, nearly entirely impunctate; ventral margin with four strong spines of which apical one is more distant; medial face impunctate, apex shallowly concave interiorly near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally, with sparse, short setae ventrally; metatarsomeres with a strongly serrated longitudinal ridge and a strong, smooth carina beside it, first metatarsomere shorter than following two tarsomeres combined and longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate. All claws symmetrical, feebly curved and long, with normally developed basal tooth.

Aedeagus. Figs. 2A–D View FIGURE 2 . Habitus. Fig. 2E View FIGURE 2 . Female unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Maladera ( Hemiserica) subinaequalis sp. nov. is in external shape and size similar to Maladera hsui Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, 2021 but differs by the dorsoventrally somewhat flattened and compared to the phallobase longer parameres, by the right paramere having a small basal lobe, and the left one lacking the spiral filiform distal extension which is present in most of the Indian species of the subgenus Hemiserica .

Etymology. The name of the new species is derived from the combined Latin prefix sub- (almost) and inaequalis (inequal), with reference to the morphology of parameres of aedeagus, which are not equal in size, the left is full complete while the right paramere is 3/4 th the size of left one and appears chopped.

Distribution. Known from the type locality only ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ).