First fossil species of ship-timber beetles (Coleoptera, Lymexylidae) from Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine)

Abstract

A new lymexylid fossil species, †Raractocetus sverlilo Nazarenko, Perkovsky & Yamamoto, sp. nov., is described from late Eocene Rovno amber of Ukraine. This new species is similar to species of the recent genera Atractocerus Palisot de Beauvois and Raractocetus Kurosawa in the ship-timber beetle subfamily Atractocerinae, but differs in pronotal and elytral features. Notably, the new species is one of the smallest atractocerines known to date. This is the first member of the family Lymexylidae found in Rovno amber. Our finding sheds further light on the paleodiversity of atractocerine beetles, highlighting a peculiar distribution during the Eocene. Only one extant atractocerine specimen has been reported from Europe (Greece), while three species from Eocene European amber forests with equable climate are known now, including two species from the otherwise tropical genus Raractocetus. Our finding of the Raractocetus beetle from Rovno amber is of significant biogeographically because it indicates the wide distribution of the genus in the Eocene European amber forests.

A new species of Bocchus from upper Eocene Rovno amber (Hymenoptera, Dryinidae)

“…In addition, one specimen from Varash district could not be determined to the species level. This difference might be related to the climate of the Rovno amber forest being warmer than that of the Baltic amber forest (Kupryjanowicz et al 2022;Yamamoto et al 2022; and references therein), especially since their potential hosts (i.e. Tropiduchidae) are mainly tropical and subtropical (Bourgoin 2020).…”

Unexpected Diversity of Xenoscelinae in Priabonian European Amber: The Third Xenosceline Species from Rovno Amber

“…The new Rovno amber pleasing fungus beetle specimen was purchased from an amber dealer, who obtained the amber mostly in the Varash district of the Rovno region, the most important source of the new Rovno amber taxa in the last few years [ 30 , 32 , 33 , 38 , 40 , 41 , 45 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ]. It was included in the clear piece of amber, weighting 7.6 g after the primary treatment.…”

“…Rovno amber biota was reviewed in [ 22 , 23 , 24 ], [ 25 ] and references therein). More than 70 beetle species from 35 families [ 17 , 19 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ] are reported; less than 15% of Rovno beetle species are known from Baltic amber [ 53 , 54 , 55 ] and references therein.…”

Protaphycus shuvalikovi Simutnik gen. et sp. nov. (Chalcidoidea, Encyrtidae, Encyrtinae) from Rovno amber

“…Zhovkini is one of the new localities from Varash District, that yielded dozens new taxa (Colombo et al 2021;Golub et al 2021;Simutnik et al 2021b;Vitali and Perkovsky 2022;Yamamoto et al 2022); Zhovkini inclusions comprise new cicadellids (Dietrich, pers. com.…”