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The name Melolontha hypocrita Mannerheim, 1829 has been long unused, even though it is the type species of Hyporhiza Dejean, 1833. I examined the only known specimen from the type series and here designate it as the lectotype. Examination of this lectotype reveals that this species is best placed in the genus Rhinaspis Perty, 1830. Consequently, the genus Hyporhiza Dejean, 1833 is confi rmed as a junior synonym of Rhinaspis. Further, the replacement name Rhinaspis fuhrmanni is proposed for Rhinaspis hypocrita (Blanchard, 1850), a new secondary homonym of Rhinaspis hypocrita (Mannerheim, 1829). A homonymy problem was also discovered and corrected for the genus Plectris LePeletier and Serville, 1828. The replacement name Plectris schoolmeestersi is proposed for Plectris paraguayensis Moser, 1924, which is a secondary junior homonym of Plectris paraguayensis (Moser, 1921).
In a recent project, extensive fieldwork was carried out in several parts of Sri Lanka to investigate scarab biodiversity. Here we present the first results of this survey and describe four new Sericini species: Selaserica athukoralai sp. nov., Neoserica dharmapriyai sp. nov., Maladera cervicornis sp. nov., M. galdaththana sp. nov. Further, new locality records for 20 already known species are given. The genitalia and the habitus of all new species are illustrated and photos of the habitats of the new species are given.