Jurassic artematopodid beetles and their implications for the early evolution of Artematopodidae (Coleoptera)

Abstract

Fossil Artematopodidae are rarely collected and previously confined to middle Eocene Baltic amber. Here we report the first definitive artematopodid, Sinobrevipogon jurassicus gen. et sp.n., from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou beds (c. 165 Ma) in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. It exhibits a number of defining features of Artematopodidae, including paired carinae on prosternum and an internal apical interlocking tongue on the ventral side of each elytron. However, it differs from any modern Artematopodidae by having the mesocoxal cavitiy closed by the mesepimeron and the anterolateral edge of metanepisternum. The discovery of this new genus represents the earliest fossil record for Artematopodidae, highlighting the antiquity of the family. The systematic positions of Forticatinius Tan & Ren and Tarsomegamerus Zhang are discussed, and the latter is formally transferred to Artematopodidae. Phylogenetic relationships within Artematopodidae were investigated to elucidate the relationships between the two Jurassic genera and Recent genera. Eleven in-group taxa and two out-groups were included in a cladistic analysis based on 30 adult characters; the resulting tree recovered the family Artematopodidae in three clades: (i) Electribius authority, (ii) Ctesibius authority + Brevipogon authority + Sinobrevipogon + Tarsomegamerus and (iii) the remaining Recent genera, including Allopogonia authority.

The peril of dating beetles

“…A more detailed justification after Parham et al 's () criteria is provided in F ile S 3. References: 1, Kirejtshuk et al (); 2, Crowson (); 3, Tan et al (); 4, Kirejtshuk & Poinar (); 5, Ge et al (); 6, Prokin et al (2013a); 7, Cassola & Werner, (); 8, Cai et al (); 9, Cai et al (); 10, Fikáček et al (); 11, Nikolajev & Ren (); 12, Nikolajev & Ren (); 13, Bai et al (); 14, Jin et al (); 15, Pan et al (); 16, Cai et al (); 17, Peris et al (); 18, Prokin & Ren, (); 19, Cai et al (); 20, Peris et al (); 21, Peris et al (); 22, Kirejtshuk & Nel (); 23, Kirejtshuk et al (); 24, Perrichot et al (); 25, Batelka et al (); 26, Falin & Engel (); 27, Engel & Grimaldi (); 28, Liu et al (); 29, Grimaldi & Engel (); 30, Kirejtshuk et al (); 31, Liu et al (); 32, Yu et al (); 33, Cai et al (); 34, Wang et al (); 35, Poinar (); 36, Legalov (); 37, Kirejtshuk et al ().…”

Response to “Evidence from amber for the origins of termitophily”

“…Their use of Ashe's [5] matrix is analogous to exploring the placement of fossil horses among Perissodactyla by including them in a matrix designed to look at chordate phylogeny. In our opinion, to test the phylogenetic relationship of a new fossil genus within a certain group, it is necessary to sample ideally all extant genera or at least the majority of the genera, as exemplifi ed in some recent explorations of living and fossil beetles [9], and developing novel matrices designed to address the research question at hand, rather than appropriating matrices of varying suitability. We agree that a thorough phylogenetic analysis of Trichopseniini is warranted, one that ultimately combines Cretotrichopsenius, all extant genera of Trichopseniini, and an exhaustive exploration of characters within the tribe.…”

First Artematopodidae from mid-Cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar (Coleoptera: Elateroidea)

“…Artematopodidae are a small but widespread family in superfamily Elateroidea, with approximately 70 described extant species (Kundrata et al 2013;Gimmel & Bocakova 2015;Wang & Liu 2021). Adults of Artematopodidae can be easily recognized based on the interlocking tongue on the apicoventral region of the elytra (Lawrence 2010;Cai et al 2015). Additional useful characters for identifying artematopodids include the ventrally bilobed tarsomere 4, the completely connate abdominal ventrites, the paired ridges of prosternum and the strongly curved suture between abdominal ventrites 4 and 5 (though the latter two are present only in some genera).…”