First thaneroclerid beetle from Cretaceous Charentese amber (Coleoptera: Cleroidea: Thanerocleridae)

Erik Tihelka (1) , Gao-Ming Cheng (2) , Diying Huang (3) , Vincent Perrichot (4) , Chen-Yang Cai (5)

1 Hartpury College
2 State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, Wuhan 430074, China
3 State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, Wuhan 430074, China
4 GR - Géosciences Rennes
5 NIGPAS-CAS - Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology

Thanerocleridae is a small family of predaceous cleroid beetles with a cosmopolitan distribution. Here we describe a new genus and species, Mesozenodosus insularis gen. et sp. nov., from early Cenomanian Charentese amber from the Fouras deposit, Charente-Maritime department in south-western France. The new genus belongs to the relictual subfamily Zenodosinae represented in the Recent fauna by a single Nearctic species, Zenodosus sanguineus (Say). Mesozenodosus gen. nov. can be differentiated from Zenodosus and the two fossil zenodosine genera from the approximately contemporaneous Burmese amber by its smaller body size, more elongate body, non-carinate pronotal margins, and apical antennomere with an oval depression. The new fossil confirms a wider diversity and distribution range of Zenodosinae in the mid-Cretaceous than in the present day and provides further evidence of the relictual status of the subfamily.

Keywords: Coleoptera; Cleroidea; Thanerocleridae; Zenodosinae; Mesozoic; fossil; Cretaceous amber; French amber

Domains: Paleontology

Erik Tihelka, Gao-Ming Cheng, Diying Huang, Vincent Perrichot, Chen-Yang Cai. First thaneroclerid beetle from Cretaceous Charentese amber (Coleoptera: Cleroidea: Thanerocleridae). Palaeoentomology, 2020, 3 (4), pp.390-398. ⟨10.11646/palaeoentomology.3.4.11⟩. ⟨insu-02926833⟩