Amber and its inclusions have been studied for over 200 years. Particular reverence was accorded the amber from the deposits around the Gulf of Gdańsk. As knowledge of amber increased, the problem of distinguishing amber from the various deposits along the Baltic Sea coast, but also in Germany, Belarus and Ukraine arose. Here we discuss the species composition of biting midges (Ceratopogonidae) from amber derived from different deposits, and discuss the use of regional names for Baltic amber yielding inclusions from the same taphocoenosis but of different geographical origin.
Biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Eocene Baltic amber from the Rovno region (Ukraine)
The paper presents the results of an examination of 714 biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) preserved in Baltic amber from the Rovno deposits in Ukraine. A new species - Leptoconops rovnensis sp. n. - is described and illustrated. 29 of the fossil species reported here have already been described from other deposits of Baltic amber: 26 of these were also found in amber from the Gulf of Gdańsk and 18 in amber from Bitterfeld (Saxony). The most common genera of biting midges in Ukrainian amber are also found in amber from Bitterfeld and the Gulf of Gdańsk, and with very much the same frequencies. The results indicate that the faunas of Ceratopogonidae enclosed in amber from Rovno, Bitterfeld and the Baltic are very similar, showing that they inhabited similar palaeoenvironments in the same palaeogeographic region.
Forcipomyia nadicola sp. n. from Paleocene Sakhalin amber (60 mya) is described and illustrated. This is the oldest named fossil species reported in the extant genus Forcipomyia and the tribe Forcipomyiini.
The very abundant representatives of the genus Malthodes Kiesenwetter, 1852 from the Eocene amber forests show a remarkable diversity of body forms, especially regarding the last abdominal segments, both tergites and sternites. These structures are important during the mating. In the present work, we describe a new species, Malthodes gedanicus sp. nov. characterized by the last sternite elongated and apically divided into two long and flat squarish lobes with three tips of which the central is longest, and by the last tergite elongated and spatuliform apically. The phylogenetic relationships based only on the shape of the last abdominal segments remain unclear and the new species is very vaguely similar to M. trifurcatus Kiesenwetter, 1852.
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