Abstract
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.
References
Cai, C.Y. & Huang, D.Y. (2018) First fossil thaneroclerid beetle from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Coleoptera: Cleroidea: Thanerocleridae). Alcheringa, 42, 115–119.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2017.1414878
Cai, C.Y., Escalona, H.E., Li, L.Q., Yin, Z.W., Huang, D.Y. & Engel, M.S. (2018) Beetle pollination of cycads in the Mesozoic. Current Biology, 28, 2806–2812.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.036
Chapin, E.A. (1924) Classification of the Philippine components of the coleopterous family Cleridae. Philippine Journal of Science, 25, 159–286.
Cockx, P.F.D., McKellar, R.C. & Perrichot, V. (2016) First records of the subfamilies Bethylinae (Hymenoptera : Bethylidae) and Cleptinae (Hymenoptera : Chrysididae) in Upper Cretaceous amber from France. Cretaceous Research, 68, 1–8.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2016.07.008
Gimmel, M.L., Szawaryn, K., Cai, C.Y. & Leschen, R.A. (2019) Mesozoic sooty mould beetles as living relicts in New Zealand. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286, 20192176.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2176
Gimmel, M.L., Bocáková, M., Gunter, N.L. & Leschen, R.A.B. (2019) Comprehensive phylogeny of the Cleroidea (Coleoptera: Cucujiformia). Systematic Entomology, 44, 527–558.
https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12338
Gunter, N.L., Leavengood, J.M., Bartlett, J.S., Chapman, E.G. & Cameron, S.L. (2013) A molecular phylogeny of the checkered beetles and a description of Epiclininae a new subfamily (Coleoptera: Cleroidea: Cleridae). Systematic Entomology, 38, 626–636.
https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12019
Huber, B.T., MacLeod, K.G., Watkins, D.K. & Coffin, M.F. (2018) The rise and fall of the Cretaceous Hot Greenhouse climate. Global and Planetary Change, 167, 1–23.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2018.04.004
Kolibáč, J. (1992) Revision of Thanerocleridae n. stat. (Coleoptera, Cleroidea). Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen entomologischen Gesellschaft, 65, 303–340.
Kolibáč, J. (1998) New Australian Thanerocleridae, with notes on biogeography of the subtribe Isoclerina Kolibáč (Coleoptera: Cleroidea). Invertebrate Taxonomy, 12, 951–975.
https://doi.org/10.1071/IT96019
Kolibáč, J., Majer, K. & Švihla, V. (2005) Beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea in the Czech and Slovak Republics and neighboring areas. Clarion Production, Prague, 186 pp.
Kolibáč, J. (2012) Onerunka longi, a new genus and species of Thanerocleridae (Coleoptera) from Papua New Guinea, with systematic notes on the tribe Thaneroclerini. Zootaxa, 3577 (1), 71–79.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3577.1.4
Kolibáč, J. (2018) Icones Insectorum Europae Centralis. Coleoptera: Cleroidea. Phloiophilidae, Acanthocnemidae, Trogossitidae, Thanerocleridae, Cleridae. Folia Heyrovskyana, Series B, 33, 1–29.
Kolibáč, J. & Leschen, R.A.B. (2010) Thanerocleridae Chapin, 1924. In: Leschen, R.A.B., Beutel, R.G. & Lawrence, J.F. (Eds), Handbook of Zoology. Arthropoda: Insecta. Coleoptera, Beetles. Vol. 2: Morphology and Systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim). De Gruyter, Berlin & New York, pp. 253–257.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110911213.253
Kolibáč, J. & Huang, D.Y. (2016) The oldest known clerid fossils from the Middle Jurassic of China, with a review of Cleridae systematics (Coleoptera). Systematic Entomology, 41, 808–823.
https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12192
Lawrence, J.F., Ślipiński, A., Seago, A.E., Thayer, M.K., Newton, A.F. & Marvaldi, A.E. (2011) Phylogeny of the Coleoptera based on morphological characters of adults and larvae. Annales Zoologici, 61, 1–217.
https://doi.org/10.3161/000345411X576725
McKenna, D.D., Shin, S., Ahrens, D., Balke, M., Beza-Beza, C., Clarke, D.J., Donath, A., Escalona, H.E., Friedrich, F., Letsch, H., Liu, S., Maddison, D., Mayer, C., Misof, B., Murin, P.J., Niehuis, O., Peters, R.S., Podsiadlowski, L., Pohl, H., Scully, E.D., Yan, E.V., Zhou, X., Ślipiński, A. & Beutel, R.G. (2019) The evolution and genomic basis of beetle diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116, 24729–24737.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909655116
McKenna, D.D., Wild, A.L., Kanda, K., Bellamy, C.L., Beutel, R.G., Caterino, M.S., Farnum, C.W., Hawks, D.C., Ivie, M.A., Jameson, M.L., Leschen, R.A.B., Marvaldi, A.E., McHugh, J.V., Newton, A.F., Robertson, J.A., Thayer, M.K., Whiting, M.F., Lawrence, J.F., Ślipiński, A., Maddison, D.R. & Farrell, B.D. (2015) The beetle tree of life reveals that Coleoptera survived end-Permian mass extinction to diversify during the Cretaceous terrestrial revolution. Systematic Entomology, 40, 835–880.
https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12132
Moreau, J.-D., Perrichot, V. & Néraudeau, D. (2020) Conifers from the Cenomanian amber of Fouras (Charente-Maritime, western France). BSGF—Earth Sciences Bulletin, 191, 16, 5 pp.
https://doi.org/10.1051/bsgf/2020017
Néraudeau, D., Allain, R., Perrichot, V., Videt, B., De Broin, F., Guillocheau, F., Philippe, M., Rage, J.-C. & Vullo, R. (2003) Découverte d’un dépôt paralique à bois fossiles, ambre insectifère et restes d’Iguanodontidae (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) dans le Cénomanien inférieur de Fouras (Charente-Maritime, Sud-Ouest de la France). Comptes Rendus Palevol, 2, 221–230.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1631-0683(03)00032-0
Opitz, W. (2010) Classification, natural history, phylogeny, and subfamily composition of the Cleridae and generic content of the subfamilies (Coleoptera: Cleroidea). Entomologica Basiliensia et Collectionis Frey, 32, 31–128.
Peris, D. (2020) Coleoptera in amber from Cretaceous resiniferous forests. Cretaceous Research, 113, 104484.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104484
Peris, D., Kolibáč, J. & Delclòs, X. (2014) Cretamerus vulloi gen. et sp. nov., the oldest bark-gnawing beetle (Coleoptera: Trogossitidae) from Cretaceous amber. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 12, 879–891.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2013.853108
Perkovsky, E.E., Martynova, K.V., Mita, T., Olmi, M., Zheng, Y., Müller, P., Zhang, Q., Gantier, F. & Perrichot, V. (2020) A golden age for ectoparasitoids of Embiodea: Cretaceous Sclerogibbidae (Hymenoptera, Chrysidoidea) from Kachin (Myanmar), Charentes (France) and Choshi (Japan) ambers. Gondwana Research, 87, 1–22.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2020.06.004
Perrichot, V. (2005) Environnements paraliques à ambre et à végétaux du Crétacé nord-aquitain (Charentes, Sud-Ouest de la France). Mémoires de Géosciences Rennes, 118, 1–310.
Perrichot, V., Néraudeau, D. & Tafforeau, P. (2010) Charentese amber. In: Penney, D. (Ed.), Biodiversity of fossils in amber from the major world deposits. Siri Scientific Press, Manchester, pp. 192–207.
Peyrot, D., Barron, E., Polette, F., Batten, D.J. & Néraudeau, D. (2019) Early Cenomanian palynofloras and inferred resiniferous forests and vegetation types in Charentes (southwestern France). Cretaceous Research, 94, 168–189.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2018.10.011
Smith, R.D.A. & Ross, A.J. (2017) Amberground pholadid bivalve borings and inclusions in Burmese amber : Implications for proximity of resin-producing forests to brackish waters, and the age of the amber. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 107, 239–247.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691017000287
Westerweel, J., Roperch, P., Licht, A., Dupont-Nivet, G., Win, Z., Poblete, F., Ruffet, G., Swe, H.H., Thi, M.K. & Aung, D.W. (2019) Burma Terrane part of the Trans-Tethyan arc during collision with India according to palaeomagnetic data. Nature Geoscience, 12, 863–868.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0443-2
Yu, Y., Deng, C., Kolibáč, J., Ślipiński, A., Ren, D., Jin, J. & Pang, H. (2017) The first record of Cretaceous thaneroclerids (Insecta: Coleoptera) from the Burmese amber. Annales Zoologici, 67, No. 3, 549–554).
https://doi.org/10.3161/00034541ANZ2017.67.3.002
Yu, T., Kelly, R., Mu, L., Ross, A., Kennedy, J., Broly, P., Xia, F., Zhang, H., Wang, B. & Dilcher, D. (2019) An ammonite trapped in Burmese amber. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 116, 11345–11350.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821292116
Zhang, S.Q., Che, L.H., Li, Y., Liang, D., Pang, H., Ślipiński, A. & Zhang, P. (2018) Evolutionary history of Coleoptera revealed by extensive sampling of genes and species. Nature Communications, 9, 1–11.