Maladera silviae Sreedevi & Ahrens, 2025

Maladera silviae Sreedevi & Ahrens View in CoL , sp. nov.

( Figs. 1A–E View FIGURE 1 )

Type locality. INDIA: Nagaland, Medziphema , 25°45’N; 93°52’E.

Type material examined. Holotype, ♂: “ INDIA: Nagaland, Medziphema, School of Agricultural Sciences , 25°45’N; 93°52’E, 23.v.2018, leg. K. Sreedevi /SER05/ICAR-NBAIR/S19” ( NBAIR). The specimen bears a red printed label: Maladera silviae sp. n GoogleMaps ., HOLOTYPE, Kolla Sreedevi and Dirk Ahrens, Det. 2025.

Description of the holotype, male. Body. Length: 10.8 mm, elytral length: 8.1 mm, width: 5.2 mm. Body wide, oval, black, dorsal surface shiny, labroclypeus, tarsomeres, and tibiae shiny, glabrous.

Head. Labroclypeus wide, lateral margins strongly convex and convergent, lateral margins produce with ocular canthus an indistinct angle, anterior angles strongly convex, anterior margin shallowly emarginate medially, margins weakly reflexed; surface shiny, at base narrowly dull, weakly convex medially, densely and finely punctate, distance between punctures twice their diameter, with a few setae anteriorly; frontoclypeal suture finely incised, bluntly angled medially; ocular canthus moderately wide and long (1/3 of ocular diameter); finely punctate, without terminal seta. Eyes large, ratio diameter/interocular width: 0.86. Frons with more superficial and moderately dense punctures, with a few single setae beside eyes. Antenna with ten antennomeres, club with three antennomeres, straight, as long as remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum convexly elevated and flattened anteriorly.

Pronotum strongly convex, widest at base, lateral margins evenly convex and convergent anteriorly, posterior angles rounded and acute, anterior angles sharp and distinctly produced; anterior margin with a fine marginal line, weakly convexly produced medially; basal margin without marginal line; surface finely and evenly punctate, setae of lateral margin robust but sparse. Scutellum wide, triangular, size of punctation as in pronotum, punctures dense anteriorly on either side of midline, mesally sparse, posterior triangular end impunctate.

Elytra strongly convex, widest shortly behind middle, striae finely impressed and finely punctate, intervals flat, densely and finely punctate, glabrous; epipleura ending at strongly rounded external apical angle of elytra; apex of elytra with a fine membraneous rim of short microtrichomes.

Ventral surface finely and densely punctate, nearly glabrous, lateral metacoxa with only a few robust setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae wide, 1.5 times as wide as mesofemur, with dense robust setae. Ratio of length of metepisternum/metacoxa: 1/1.91. Abdominal sternites finely and moderately densely punctate, each with a row of coarse punctures bearing each a robust seta. Pygidium moderately convex, coarsely and densely punctate, lateral and apical margins with short or long setae.

Legs wide and short; femora shiny and sparsely punctate laterally, medially impunctate, with two longitudinal rows of setae. Profemur densely setose with long, slender, brown setae. Midleg with three longitudinal rows of setae (anterior, middle, posterior). Metafemur shiny, anterior edge acute, without adjacent serrated line; posterior ventral margin almost straight, weakly widened in apical half, neither ventrally nor dorsally serrated but smooth, glabrous, with a row of robust longitudinal setae posteriorly. Metatibia very short and wide, flattened, ratio width/length: 1/1.85, ventral margin serrated, with two longitudinal rows of robust setae laterally, external face completely smooth along middle, dorsally and ventrally with a few superficial punctures; medial face impunctate, apex almost straight near tarsal articulation. Tarsomeres impunctate dorsally, ventrally with setae at apex; metatarsomeres ventrally glabrous, first metatarsomere little shorter than following two tarsomeres combined, and also slightly shorter than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia short, bidentate. Anterior claws symmetrical.

Aedeagus. Figs. 1A–D View FIGURE 1 . Habitus. Fig. 1E View FIGURE 1 . Female unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Maladera silviae sp. nov. is similar to M. profana Ahrens & Fabrizi, 2016 in the shape of the male genitalia and its external morphology. The new species differs from M. profana by the apically more abruptly curved right paramere (dorsal view) having the dorsal margin concavely sinuated in basal half (lateral view) ( Figs. 1A, C View FIGURE 1 ), the left paramere is also less strongly curved at apex.

Etymology. This new species (noun in the genitive case) is named after the dedicated taxonomist, Silvia Fabrizi, in recognition of her contribution to Sericini taxonomy.

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