A new species of the genus Charhyphus Sharp, 1887 (Phloeocharinae) from the Eocene Baltic amber is described and illustrated: Ch. balticus Shavrin, sp. nov. The specimen was studied by using X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT); images of the habitus, body parts and aedeagus were obtained. Based on external morphology, the new species is related to Nearctic Ch. picipennis (LeConte, 1863) and East Palaearctic Ch. paradoxus (Bernhauer, 1933), from which it differs by the smaller body, shape of the head, and other details.
Abstract. A male representative of the extinct species Calomicrus eocenicus Bukejs et
Bezděk, 2014 (Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae) is found and described for the
first time from Eocene Baltic amber using X-ray microtomography. The
aedeagus is well preserved within the body cavity of the specimen, and it is
illustrated in detail. This fossil species exhibits distinct sexual
dimorphism: the male has a smaller total body size, as well as a
copula-adapted modification in abdominal ventrite 5 (apical margin deeply
trilobed, with round medial fovea present); meanwhile the female is larger
in body size and has a simple abdominal ventrite 5 (without fovea,
non-incised and widely rounded apically). Similar sexually dimorphic
characters are typical for extant members of the tribe Luperini, and this
report is the first time that they are described in an Eocene species. The
known sexually dimorphic characters present in Coleoptera within Eocene
Baltic amber are briefly discussed.
A new species of Mycetophagidae belonging to the genus Litargus, namely L. (Litargosomus) dantiscensis Alekseev, Kupryjanowicz et Bukejs sp. nov., is described and figured from Eocene Baltic amber using X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT). Three additional specimens of a mycetophagid beetle that is rather common in Baltic amber, Crowsonium succinium Abdullah, are also reported. Prototoma striata Heer, which was originally placed in Mycetophagidae, is discussed based on its original description and illustration: it is proposed that the position incertae sedis within Coleoptera be given to this Early Jurassic fossil. Consequently, the records of Mycetophagidae from Eocene European amber should be considered the earliest occurrence of the family known to date.
Based on a single well-preserved specimen from Eocene Baltic amber, a new tenebrionid beetle Neomida groehni Nabozhenko et Bukejs sp. nov. (Diaperinae: Diaperini) is described and illustrated using phase-contrast X-ray microtomography. This oldest representative of the genus differs from all known extant and extinct congeners by the dorsally very weakly convex pronotum with undulate lateral margins (while other Neomida have a pronotum that is strongly convex along its transverse axis, with evenly rounded lateral margins); distinct, right posterior angles of pronotum; and elevated sutural area of the elytra.
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