scholarly journals The First Ptilodactyla Illiger, 1807 (Coleoptera: Dryopoidea: Ptilodactylidae) Described from Eocene Baltic Amber

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 877
Author(s):  
Robin Kundrata ◽  
Gabriela Packova ◽  
Kristaps Kairišs ◽  
Andris Bukejs ◽  
Johana Hoffmannova ◽  
...  

The beetle family Ptilodactylidae contains more than 500 extant species; however, its fossil record is scarce and remains understudied. In this study, we describe a new species of Ptilodactylidae, Ptilodactyla eocenica Kundrata, Bukejs and Blank, sp. nov., based on a relatively well-preserved specimen from Baltic amber. We use X-ray microcomputed tomography to reconstruct its morphology since some of the principal diagnostic characters have been obscured by opaque bubbles. It is the third ptilodactylid species described from Baltic amber, and the first one belonging to the subfamily Ptilodactylinae. Additionally, we summarize the classification, diversity, and distribution of both extinct and extant Ptilodactylidae.

Fossil Record ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Mitov ◽  
J. A. Dunlop ◽  
D. Penney

Abstract. A new specimen of Lacinius Thorell, 1876; (Opiliones: Phalangiidae) from Eocene Baltic amber is described. We interpret it as conspecific with a slightly younger record from the German Bitterfeld amber, originally referred to as the extant species L. erinaceus Staręga, 1966. Our new specimen reveals pedipalpal apophyses on both the patella and the tibia, features which we can now confirm in the Bitterfeld fossil too. This unique character combination for the genus justifies a new, extinct species: Lacinius bizleyi sp. nov. The Baltic amber inclusion dates to ca. 44–49 Ma, and is thus the oldest putative example of Lacinius in the fossil record. It is a further example of an arachnid species shared between Baltic and Bitterfeld amber.


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4550 (4) ◽  
pp. 565 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDRIS BUKEJS ◽  
VITALII I. ALEKSEEV ◽  
DAVID M.L. COOPER ◽  
GAVIN A. KING ◽  
RYAN C. MCKELLAR

Based on a well-preserved specimen from Eocene Baltic amber, the second fossil species belonging to the genus Pycnomerus Erichson (Coleoptera: Zopheridae: Zopherinae), P. agtsteinicus Bukejs, Alekseev & McKellar sp. nov. is described and illustrated using synchrotron X-ray micro-CT observations. The new species adds to the sparse fossil record of Pycnomerus, which consists of the Baltic amber discoveries, and only four subfossil records in sediments that are less than one million years old. As part of this work, the new replacement name Pycnomerus lordi Bukejs, Alekseev & McKellar nom. nov. is also established for the extant species Pycnomerus sulcicollis LeConte, 1863 [non Pycnomerus sulcicollis (Germar, 1824)]. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2742 (1) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID PENNEY ◽  
ANDREW MCNEIL ◽  
DAVID I. GREEN ◽  
ROBERT BRADLEY ◽  
YURI M. MARUSIK ◽  
...  

A new species of the extant spider family Anapidae is described from a fossil mature male in Eocene amber from the Baltic region and tentatively assigned to the genus Balticoroma Wunderlich, 2004. Phase contrast X-ray computed micro-tomography was used to reveal important features that were impossible to view using traditional microscopy. Balticoroma wheateri new species is easily diagnosed from all other anapids by having clypeal extensions that run parallel to the ectal surface of the chelicerae and in having the metatarsus of the first leg highly reduced and modified into what is presumably a y-shaped clasping structure. Although only a single extant anapid species occurs in northern Europe, the family was diverse in the Eocene. The discovery of yet another anapid species in Baltic amber supports the idea that Eocene European forests may have been a hotspot of evolution for this family of spiders.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5020 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-336
Author(s):  
MASSIMO OLMI ◽  
DMITRY V. VASILENKO ◽  
LEONARDO CAPRADOSSI ◽  
EVGENY E. PERKOVSKY ◽  
ADALGISA GUGLIELMINO

Lonchodryinus groehni sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea: Dryinidae) is described from Baltic amber. The new species is close to L. balticus Olmi & Guglielmino, 2012, but it can be distinguished for the different OPL/POL ratio and 2r-rs&Rs vein of the fore wing. A key to the fossil species of Lonchodryinus and a comparison with the extant species L. ruficornis (Dalman, 1818) are presented.  


Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4318 (1) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
JOACHIM SCHMIDT ◽  
TORBEN GÖPEL ◽  
KIPLING WILL

Species of the megadiverse ground beetle tribe Platynini occur on all continents except Antarctica. It has been long recognized that platynine beetles were preserved in the Eocene Baltic amber. However, thus far only a single Eocene fossil has been described to the species level. In the present paper, a new species of Platynini known only as an amber inclusion fossil is described and imaged using light microscopy and micro X-ray computed tomography. Since this species cannot be assigned to any of the recently described genera, the monotypic genus Praeanchodemus gen. n., with the type species P. punctaticeps sp. n., is erected. There is some evidence from external morphology that Praeanchodemus gen. n. is part of a lineage comprising the recent genera Paranchodemus, Rhadine, and Tanystoma. However, since some synapomorphies were not found, the true relationships of the fossil taxon remain moot. 


ZooKeys ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 973 ◽  
pp. 89-101
Author(s):  
Alexey V. Shavrin ◽  
Shûhei Yamamoto

An unusual new omaliine species, Anthobium alekseevisp. nov., is described and illustrated from Eocene Baltic amber, tentatively placed in the megadiverse genus Anthobium Leach, 1819. A new monotypic species-group is established. The new species can easily be distinguished from other species of the genus by the larger body, shape of the subrectangular pronotum, and the presence of a median carina on the prosternum and large, subtriangular tooth on the inner side of each mesotibia, likely exhibiting a peculiar sexual dimorphism in the male. Based on the study of the specimen with support of microtomographic images, a brief comparative analysis of a new species with described extant species of Anthobium is provided.


2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Krogmann ◽  
John Jennings

AbstractFossil species of Pristaulacus are uncommon, with just two known species, P. mandibularis Brues and P. praevolans Brues from Baltic amber, and three species, P. bradleyi (Brues), P. rohweri Brues and P. secundus (Cockerell), from the Florissant fossil beds, Colorado, USA. Here we provide a detailed description of Pristaulacus velteni sp.n., the third fossil species known from Baltic amber.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5082 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-184
Author(s):  
MAXIM V. NABOZHENKO ◽  
ANDRIS BUKEJS

A new species of comb-clawed beetles of the genus Asiomira Dubrovina, 1973 (A. dubrovinae sp. n.) is described from the Eocene Baltic amber. This newly descovered fossil species displays typical generic characters and is the most similar to the extant Asiomira ophtalmica (Seidlitz, 1896). Both species share a similar shape of the pronotum and the flattened posterior angles of the pronotal disc. Asiomira dubrovinae sp. n. can be distinguished from A. ophtalmica by the smaller body size (4.8 mm in contrast to 6–8.12 mm), more serrate antennomeres, and finer and sparser pronotal punctation. Extant species of the genus are distributed in the arid landscapes of Central Asia with the highest diversity occurring in Tajikistan. Therefore the discovery of a new fossil species from Eocene Baltic amber suggests that Asiomira could have a wider range, and the modern distribution of this group is the result of a later secondary expansion of the ancestral representatives that survived in mid-mountain areas with arboreal and shrub vegetation. Relevant corrections to the distribution of extant species, Asiomira ophtalmica (Seidlitz, 1896) and Asiomira firjusana (Dubrovina, 1973), are given.  


Nematology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 655-658
Author(s):  
George O. Poinar ◽  
Douglas C. Currie

Summary A new species of fossil mermithid, Heydenius simulphilus sp. n. (Nematoda: Mermithidae), is described from two parasitic juvenile specimens adjacent to a male black fly (Diptera: Simuliidae) in Baltic amber. It is proposed that the nematodes emerged from their developmental sites in the haemocoel of the black fly host through a wound in the abdomen of the latter, as indicated by the release of a droplet of haemolymph and damaged cuticle. Various internal structures of the nematodes are identified and related to those found on extant developing mermithids. This is the first fossil record of mermithid parasitism of a black fly.


Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4482 (1) ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
REBECCA N. KITTEL

A new but exinct chelonine wasp species, Phanerotomella brevivena Kittel sp. nov. (Braconidae: Cheloninae) of the modern genus Phanerotomella is described from Baltic amber. This new species differs from all other extant Phanerotomella species by having the fore wing vein SR-1 only partially sclerotised. This is the first fossil record of the genus in amber. 


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