The Eumetabola (Endopterygota (also known as Holometabola) plus Paraneoptera) have the highest number of species of any clade, and greatly contribute to animal species biodiversity. The palaeoecological circumstances that favoured their emergence and success remain an intriguing question. Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses have suggested a wide range of dates for the initial appearance of the Holometabola, from the Middle Devonian epoch (391 million years (Myr) ago) to the Late Pennsylvanian epoch (311 Myr ago), and Hemiptera (310 Myr ago). Palaeoenvironments greatly changed over these periods, with global cooling and increasing complexity of green forests. The Pennsylvanian-period crown-eumetabolan fossil record remains notably incomplete, particularly as several fossils have been erroneously considered to be stem Holometabola (Supplementary Information); the earliest definitive beetles are from the start of the Permian period. The emergence of the hymenopterids, sister group to other Holometabola, is dated between 350 and 309 Myr ago, incongruent with their current earliest record (Middle Triassic epoch). Here we describe five fossils--a Gzhelian-age stem coleopterid, a holometabolous larva of uncertain ordinal affinity, a stem hymenopterid, and early Hemiptera and Psocodea, all from the Moscovian age--and reveal a notable penecontemporaneous breadth of early eumetabolan insects. These discoveries are more congruent with current hypotheses of clade divergence. Eumetabola experienced episodes of diversification during the Bashkirian-Moscovian and the Kasimovian-Gzhelian ages. This cladogenetic activity is perhaps related to notable episodes of drying resulting from glaciations, leading to the eventual demise in Euramerica of coal-swamp ecosystems, evidenced by floral turnover during this interval. These ancient species were of very small size, living in the shadow of Palaeozoic-era 'giant' insects. Although these discoveries reveal unexpected Pennsylvanian eumetabolan diversity, the lineage radiated more successfully only after the mass extinctions at the end of the Permian period, giving rise to the familiar crown groups of their respective clades.

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The present paper is devoted to an overview on fossil Coleoptera studied from Inner Mongolia, Daohugou (Middle Jurassic, Jiulongshan Formation) and Liaoning (Upper Jurassic‐Lower Cretaceous, Yixian Formation) deposited in Chinese collections. As a result, species of the tribe Sperchopsini and Hydrophilini from Hydrophilidae, families and subfamilies Silphidae, Syndesinae from Lucanidae, Pleocomidae, Trogidae, Trogissitidae, Pyrochroidae, Diaperinae from Tenebrionidae, and Cerambycidae were first registered in the Mesozoic and some families were defined as new. It was shown that many superfamilies represented in the Recent Fauna were formed within the Middle Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. The materials examined confirm the hypothesis that Cucujiformian beetles are a younger group than other infraordera of Polyphaga (Staphyliniformia and Elateriformia) and, therefore, they appeared in the fossil record only in the late Mesozoic. It was shown and confirmed that most superfamilies appeared in the fossil records before Cucujoidea. The synonymy of Notocupes Ponomarenko, 1964; Sinocupes Lin, 1976, syn. nov.; Amblomma Tan, Ren et Liu 2005, syn. nov.; Euryomma Tan, Ren et Shih, 2006, syn. nov., non Stein, 1899 and Ovatocupes Tan et Ren, 2006, syn. nov.; synonymy of Tetraphalerus Waterhouse, 1901 and Odontomma Tan, Ren et Ge 2006, syn. nov.; and synonymy of Priacmopsis Ponomarenko, 1966 and Latocupes Tan et Ren, 2006, syn. nov. are proposed. Sinorhombocoleus papposus Tan et Ren, 2009 is transferred from the family Rhombocoleidae to Schizophoridae. Cervicatinius complanus Tan, Ren et Shih, 2007 and Forticatinius elegans Tan, Ren et Shih, 2007 are transferred from the family Catiniidae (suborder Archostemata) to superfamily Cleroidea (suborder Polyphaga: first among the family Peltidae and second as a closely related group to the latter family). The family Parandrexidae is transferred from the superfamily Cucujoidea to Cleroidea. The ecological circumstances of the past ecosystems and hypotheses of historical development of the order Coleoptera are discussed. The age of faunas examined is considered. The list of the taxa described from Daohugou and Liaoning is compiled.

This paper overviews more than 39 families of fossil Coleoptera from Lower Cretaceous Lebanese amber from nine outcrops. Lebanese amber contains the oldest representatives of the families Scydmaenidae (considered by some as a subfamily of Staphylinidae), Ptiliidae, Elodophalmidae, Clambidae, Throscidae, Lebanophytidae fam. n., Ptilodactylidae, Cantharidae, Melyridae, Dasytidae, Dermestidae, Ptinidae, Kateretidae, Erotylidae, Latridiidae, Laemophloeidae, Salpingidae, Anthicidae, Melandryidae, Aderidae, Curculionidae (Scolytinae). The families Chelonariidae and Scraptiidae are known from both Lebanese amber and Baissa, with both sites having a comparable age. The subfamilies Trechinae (Carabidae), Euaesthetinae (Staphylinidae) and Liparochrinae (Hybosoridae) first appear in the fossil record in Lebanese amber. The Coleoptera in Lebanese amber mostly belong to groups with arboreal habits (as found today in wood and tree fungi).Eochelonarium bellegen. et sp. n.,Rhizophtoma synchrotronicasp. n.,Rhizobactron marinaegen et sp. n. andAtetrameropsis subglobosagen. et sp. n. are described from Lebanese amber. A new subfamily in the family Cerophytidae is proposed forAphytocerus communisZherichin, 1977 (Aphytocerinae subfam. n.) and new genusBaissopsisgen.nov. is erected forBaissophytum amplusChang, Kirejtshuk et Ren, 2011. Also a new interpretation of the taxon “Lasiosynidae” is provided by placing it as a subfamily in the family Eulichadidae with two genera (LasiosyneTan, Ren et Shih, 2007 andBupredactylaKirejtshuk, Chang, Ren et Shih, 2010), while the other genera initially regarded as “Lasiosynidae” were tentatively transferred into Eulichadinae sensu n. (MesodascillaMartynov, 1926;TarsomegamerusZhang, 2005;BrachysyneTan et Ren, 2009;AnacapitisYan, 2009;ParelateriformiusYan et Wang, 2010 andCretasyneYan, Wang et Zhang, 2013) with the new synonymy ofTarsomegamerusandParelateriformiussyn. n. The genusMesaplusHong, 1983 described in the family Triaplidae is also transvered to Eulichadinae. The generaArtematopoditesPonomarenko, 1990;DzeregiaPonomarenko, 1985 andGlaphyropteroidesHandlirsch, 1906 proposed for species known only by separate elytra and recently included in the “family” Lasiosynidae (Yan et al., 2013) are regarded as Elateriformiaincertae sedis. The first insect from the newly discovered outcrops of Nabaa Es-Sukkar – Brissa: Caza (District) Sir Ed-Danniyeh, Mouhafazet (Governorate) Loubnan Esh-Shimali (North Lebanon) is described and the first general description of this outcrop is made.

The paper is the first of a series, which aims to present a consistent interpretation of the suprageneric taxa of fossil beetles in the current century and their generic and species composition. Order Coleoptera is considered in composition of the superorder Coleopteroidea Handlirsch, 1903 (= Coleopterida sensu Boudreaux, 1979, nec Pearse, 1936 together with orders Skleroptera and Strepsiptera, and also with the family Umenocoleidae of unclear position. This paper includes the archostematan superfamilies Coleopseoidea and Cupedoidea of the infraorder Cupediformia, i.e., Coleopseidae (one genus and one species), Tshekardocoleidae (12 genera, 15 species), Labradorocoleidae (one genus, one species), Permocupedidae (together with Taldycupedinae, stat. nov., 24 genera and 54 species) and Cupedidae (three subfamilies, 49 genera, 253 species). The preliminary information on structure of the larva of Tshekardocoleidae from Tshekarda is done. There are also described the new taxa:Geosciences 2020, 10, 73 4 of 85 information is the web-site "FOSSILWORKS. Gateway to the paleobiology database" (fossilworks.org/) containing the information not only on many fossil taxa, but also various information on different aspects, including data on the geological circumstances of the localities where each taxon was collected, localization of specimens which gave the base for proposals of numerous fossil taxa and which were published after the description of each definite taxon included in this database, geographic and stratigraphic distribution of each taxon, summary of classification aspect of supraspecific taxa, and much other valuble information. At the moment, however, there are still many coleopterous groups remaining out of this resource and this attempt to fill some information gaps is thought to be useful for further progress of the investigation of fossil beetles. On the other hand, there are some wrong taxonomic interpretations occasionally included in the database "FOSSILWORKS". Another web-site very useful for searching general information on fossil taxa recently published is a web-series of Wikipedia "in insect paleontology" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_in_insect_paleontology) and the "Index of organism names" (http://www.organismnames.com/), however, both these sources are useful mostly for getting only basic reference data on published taxa. Having summarized these parental efforts, the author of this publication hopes that it will cause a further discussion and draw the attention of other colleagues, who, in turn, will make essential contributions to reach a good reasonable taxonomic interpretation of the fossil data on the order Coleoptera.The appearance of a great interest and very rapid increase of data on fossils during recent decades created a situation when addition of new facts occurred much faster than their conceptualization in general theoretical aspects. On the other hand, every year many papers proposing new hypotheses using fossils as a part of their base have appeared. Thus, correct interpretations of...

The paper is mainly devoted to the studies of the fossil Cupedidae from the Paleocene of Menat (Puy-de-Dôme, France) and to a preliminary generic analysis of the subfamily Cupedinae. All modern and fossil taxa of genus rank which could belong to Cupedinae are revised. The previous division of this subfamily into tribes (including Priacmini and Mesocupidini) is regarded as not advisable. An annotated list of the fossil species of the subfamily Cupedinae is compiled and revised. New keys to subfamilies of Cupedidae and to genera and subgenera of Cupedinae, and also keys for species of Cainomerga subgen.n. and Cupes found in deposits from Menat are given. As a result, several new genera and subgenera are proposed, i.e. the fossil Apriacma gen.n., from the early Cretaceous (the type species: Priacma tuberculosa Tan, Ren et Shin, 2006), Cretomerga gen.n., from the early Cretaceous (the type species: Priacmopsis subtilis Tan et Ren, 2006), Cupopsis gen.n. from the late Cretaceous (the type species: Paracupes svetkoi Lubkin, 2003), Cainomerga subgen.n., from the Paleocene (the type species: Mesocupes (Cainomerga) brevicornis sp.n.), Menatops gen.n., from the Paleocene (the type species: Cupes orbiculatus Kirejtshuk, Nel et Collomb, 2010), Taxopsis gen.n., from the late Eocene (the type species: Cupes motschulskyi Kirejtshuk, 2005), Cainocups gen.n., from the latest Oligocene (the type species: Cainocups aixensis sp.n.), as well as the Recent Paracupoides subgen.n., from central Ecuador, South America (the type species: Paracupes ascius Neboiss, 1989). The following species are described from the Paleocene deposits of Menat: Mesocupes (Cainomerga) brevicornis sp.n., M. (C.) fraternus sp.n., M. (C.) palaeocenicus sp.n., M. (C.) ponti sp.n., Menatops bartenevi sp.n., Cupes distinctissimus sp.n., C. simillimus sp.n., or commented: Menatops orbiculatus (Kirejtshuk, Nel et Collomb, 2010), comb.n. transferred from Cupes], and Mesocupes (Cainomerga) immaculatus (Piton, 1940), comb.n. transferred from Zonabris (Meloidae). Besides, some cupedine fossils from Menat remain without both description and generic attribution. Kirghizocupes Ponomarenko, 1966 is transferred from the Triadocupedinae to Cupedinae and synonymized with

Three new genera and six new species of fossil elaterids of the tribe Desmatini Dolin, 1975 from second Bed of the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Huangbanjigou, Liaoning Province, China are described: Paradesmatus dilatatus sp. nov., Desmatinus cognatus gen. et sp. nov., Apoclion clavatus gen. et sp. nov., A. dolini gen. et sp. nov., A. antennatus gen. et sp. nov. and Anoixis complanus, gen. et sp. nov. This tribe demonstrates some characters similar to those in Throscidae and Eucnemidae, elucidating the evolutionary process of the Elateroidea. New materials make clear the distinctness of the genera related to DesmatusDolin, 1975 (tribe Desmatini) from all other Elateridae. Tetraraphes ebersiniIablokoff-Khnzorian, 1961 could be regarded somewhat nearby the subfamily Protagrypninae; however, this species seems to be similar to some Cenozoic groups rather than any of Mesozoic groups.

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