Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2025-05-02
Page range: 380-386
Abstract views: 84
PDF downloaded: 5

A new bark-gnawing beetle (Coleoptera: Cleroidea: Trogossitidae) from Baltic amber

Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University; Nevskogo 14; Kaliningrad 236016; Russia.
Rockville; Maryland 20853; USA.
Institute of Life Sciences and Technologies; Daugavpils University; Vienības 13; Daugavpils LV-5401; Latvia.
Coleoptera Cenozoic Paleogene paleodiversity paleoentomology fossil resin new species new genus

Abstract

A new extinct representative of the tribe Trogossitini, Ligaschonus succiniripae gen. et sp. nov., is described, diagnosed, and illustrated based on a well-preserved specimen from Eocene Baltic amber. The extinct beetle is compared with related extant genera of the tribe Trogossitini, from which the inclusion in Baltic amber can be distinguished by a unique combination of a comparatively small body size, elliptically convex eyes, tiny but distinct anterior pronotal angles, a pronotum narrowed at the base, finely and regularly punctate elytra without carinae, small spines along the outer margin of tibiae, and the absence of median longitudinal groove or a pair of distinctly projecting horns in frons. This represents only the second trogossitid species described from Baltic amber and the third bark-gnawing beetle from all fossil resins.

 

References

  1. Alekseev, V.I., Bukejs, A. & Pollock, D.A. (2024) The first fossil of a tenebrionoid taxonomic enigma: Agnathus Germar (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae: Agnathinae) in Bitterfeld amber, with remarks about age and geographic origin of the fossil. Historical Biology, 37 (3), 714–719. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2024.2327082
  2. Anderson, K.B., Winans, R.E. & Botto, R.E. (1992) The nature and fate of natural resins in the biosphere—II. Identification, classification, and nomenclature of resinites. Organic Geochemistry, 18 (6), 829–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/0146-6380(92)90051-X
  3. Balsys, R. (2016) Paganism of Prussian: sacred caste tulissones, ligaschones. Visnyk of the Lviv University. Series History, 52, 72–92.
  4. Barron, J.R. (1971) A revision of the Trogositidae of America North of Mexico (Coleoptera: Cleroidea). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada, 75, 1–143. https://doi.org/10.4039/entm10375fv
  5. Bukejs, A., Alekseev, V.I. & Pollock, D.A. (2019) Waidelotinae, a new subfamily of Pyrochroidae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea) from Baltic amber of the Sambian peninsula and the interpretation of Sambian amber stratigraphy, age and location. Zootaxa, 4664 (2), 261–273. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4664.2.8
  6. Fuhrmann, R.F. (2010) Die Bitterfelder Bernsteinarten. Mauritiana, Altenburg, 21, 1–46.
  7. Gimmel, M.L., Bocakova, 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
  8. Gröhn, K. & Kobbert, M.J. (2017) Pflanzen seit der Saurierzeit eingeschlossen in Bernstein. Wachholtz, Kiel/Hamburg, 240 pp.
  9. Kolibáč, J. (2005) A review of the Trogositidae. Part 1: Morphology of the genera (Coleoptera, Cleroidea). Entomologica Basiliensia et Collectionis Frey, 27, 39–159.
  10. Kolibáč, J. (2013) Trogossitidae: a review of the beetle family, with a catalogue and keys. ZooKeys, 366, 1–194. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.366.6172
  11. Kolibáč, J. & Alekseev, V. (2017) Seidlitzella hoffeinsorum sp. nov., the first representative of the beetle tribe Gymnochilini (Coleoptera: Trogossitidae) from Baltic amber. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 107, 289–296. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691017000305
  12. Kolibáč, J. & Leschen, R.A.B. (2010) Trogossitidae Fabricius, 1801. In: Leschen, R.A.B., Beutel, R.G. & Lawrence, J.F. (Eds.), Handbook of Zoology. Vol. 2. Coleoptera, Beetles. Morphology and Systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co, Berlin, pp. 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110911213.241
  13. Kolibáč, J. & Peris, D. (2021) A new saproxylic species of Lophocateridae (Coleoptera: Cleroidea) from Upper Cretaceous Kachin amber (Myanmar). Cretaceous Research, 117, 104647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104647
  14. Kolibáč, J., Bocakova, M., Liebherr, J.K., Ramage, T. & Porch, N. (2021) Extinct and extant Pacifc Trogossitidae and the evolution of Cleroidea (Coleoptera) after the Late Triassic biotic crisis. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 191, 846–882. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa064
  15. Lambert, J.B., Santiago-Blay, J.A., Wu, Y. & Levy, A.J. (2015) The history and structure of stantienite (1). The Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, 40 (2), 86–94.
  16. Li, Y.-D., Tihelka, E., Leschen, R.A.B., Yu, Y., Ślipiński, A., Pang, H., Huang, D., Kolibáč, J. & Cai, C. (2021) An exquisitely preserved tiny bark‐gnawing beetle (Coleoptera: Trogossitidae) from mid‐Cretaceous Burmese amber and the phylogeny of Trogossitidae. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 59 (8), 1939–1950. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzs.12515
  17. Lyubarsky, G.Y., Tihelka, E., Cai, C.-Y. & Perkovsky, E.E. (2021) Zaiwa: A new genus of the family Lophocateridae from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Coleoptera: Cleroidea). Palaeoentomology, 4 (3), 218–222. https://doi.org/10.11646/palaeoentomology.4.3.7
  18. 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
  19. Savkevich, S.S. (1970) Amber. Nedra, Leningrad, 192 pp. [in Russian]
  20. Schmied, H., Wappler, T. & Kolibáč, J. (2009) A new bark-gnawing beetle (Coleoptera, Trogossitidae) from the Middle Eocene of Europe, with a checklist of fossil Trogossitidae. Zootaxa, 1993 (1), 17–26. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1993.1.2
  21. Schmied, H., Wappler, T. & Kolibáč, J. (2011) Die Fossilgeschichte der Jagdkäfer (Trogossitidae). Entomologie heute, 23, 117–122.
  22. Vávra, N. (2009) The chemistry of amber – facts, findings and opinions. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, Serie A, 111, 445–474.
  23. Wolfe, A.P., Tappert, R., Muehlenbachs, K., Boudreau, M., McKellar, R.C., Basinger, J.F. & Garrett, A. (2009) A new proposal concerning the botanical origin of Baltic amber. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 3403–3412. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.0806
  24. Wollaston, T.V. (1862) X. On the Euphorbia-infesting Coleoptera of the Canary Islands. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, Series 3, 1, 136–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2311.1862.tb00596.x
  25. Yu, Y.L., Leschen, R.A., Ślipiński, A., Ren, D., Wang, S. & Pang, H. (2021) Mesozoic Cleroidea (Coleoptera): first record of mid Cretaceous Lophocateridae from Burmese amber and notes on the disputed genera Cervicatinius Tan & Ren (Trogossitidae) and Forticatinius Tan & Ren (Artematopodidae). Cretaceous Research, 119, 104680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104680

How to Cite

Alekseev, V., Pankowski, M.V. & Bukejs, A. (2025) A new bark-gnawing beetle (Coleoptera: Cleroidea: Trogossitidae) from Baltic amber. Zootaxa, 5631 (2), 380–386. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5631.2.10