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Issue: Vol. 7 No. 5: October 2024
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2024-10-30
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.5.3
Page range: 590–593
Abstract views: 533
PDF downloaded: 8

The first firefly fossil (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) from Dominican amber

Laboratório de Entomologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, A1–107, Bloco A, Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373, Cidade Universitária, Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, 17. listopadu 50, Palacky University, 779 00, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, 17. listopadu 50, Palacky University, 779 00, Olomouc, Czech Republic; Laboratory of Biodiversity & Molecular Evolution, Czech Advanced Technology Research Institute, Slechtitelu 27, Palacky University, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic; Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute (CATRIN), Palacký University Olomouc
2F., No. 138, Aly. 118, Ln. 235, Dedong St., East Dist., Tainan City 701030, Taiwan, China
Biology Department, Western Carolina University, 460 Memorial Drive, Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723, USA
bioluminescence Lampyrinae Lamprocerini firefly taxonomy Coleoptera Lampyridae

Abstract

Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) comprise ~2,500 extant species worldwide (Ferreira et al., 2020). Considering the extant diversity of firefly species, their fossil record is scant, with only eight taxa across four subfamilies: Luciolinae, Ototretinae, Lamprohizinae, and Lampyrinae (Supplementary file 1; Kazantsev, 2024). Dominican amber may have the best quality of preservation among fossil resins, with a rich diversity of fossil specimens (Grimaldi & Engel, 2005) from the early Miocene (20–15 Ma) (Iturralde-Vinent & MacPhee, 2019). However, no firefly taxon was previously known from this deposit. Here, we describe the first Lampyridae fossil from Dominican amber. It represents a new species of the extant Neotropical genus Lychnacris Motschulsky, 1853, which has 19 extant species known from the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean (Kazantsev & Perez-Gelabert, 2009, 2013; Perez-Gelabert, 2011).

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