Six new species of fossil soldier beetles (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) from Eocene Baltic amber

Abstract

We describe and illustrate six new species of the family Cantharidae from Baltic amber: Sucinorhagonycha maryae sp. nov. (Cantharinae, Cacomorphocerini), Podistra madelineae sp. nov. (Cantharinae, Cantharini), Malthinus (Malthinus) karenpankowskiae sp. nov. (Malthininae, Malthinini), Malthinus (Malthinus) pauljohnsoni sp. nov. (Malthininae, Malthinini), Malthodes (Libertimalthodes) betseyae sp. nov. (Malthininae, Malthodini) and Malthodes (Malthodes) greenwalti sp. nov. (Malthininae, Malthodini). These new taxa add to the astonishing palaeodiversity documented in Baltic amber, demonstrating the wide range of organisms thriving in European forests and wooded areas during the Eocene. Extant species of Malthodes, Malthinus and Podistra also provide important clues to how these extinct taxa lived, fed and reproduced some 35–40 million years ago.

<div>A new fossil Malthodes (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) from the Baltic amber Lagerstätte</div>

“…The evolution of the genus apparently began after or near the mass extinction that occurred 66 Ma, but most likely before Eocene (Fanti, 2021;Fanti & Pankowski, 2024). In the present-day Baltic region, only few species of Malthodes are known (Kazantsev & Brancucci, 2007), probably due to the cold temperatures (Erwin, 2009;Pankowski & Fanti, 2023). The fossil records of Cantharidae and Malthodes have suggested or helped us understand various biological aspects.…”

A new fossil Sucinorhagonycha (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) from Baltic amber with visible female gonostili

“…This specimen of Nothotytthonyx serratus has a long gonostyli, a relatively aberrant feature in the subfamily Malthininae (Li et al 2022) but typical in the subfamily Cantharinae (Brancucci 1980), suggesting an uncertainty in the taxonomic attribution of this fossil. Another specimen belonging to the genus Sucinorhagonycha KuśKa, 1996, once thought to be the female of Sucinorhagonycha kulickae KuśKa, 1996(Kubisz 2000 but according to Pankowski and Fanti (2023) is actually a different species, has its ovipositor partially visible in an incision in the last abdominal segments (Kubisz 2000). Sucinorhagonycha carsteni sp.…”

“…Sucinorhagonycha KuśKa, 1996 is a small Eocene genus known only in the fossil state from the Baltic amber deposits of the Yantarny mine, Kaliningrad Region, Russia, a horizon referred to the Lutetian-Priabonian stage. Only five species have been described so far (Kuśka 1996, Kubisz 2000, Kazantsev 2013, Fanti 2017, Kazantsev 2020, Pankowski 2023, Pankowski and Fanti 2023. The genus is characterized by filiform antennae with 12 antennomeres, the latter character present only in the related genus Cacomorphocerus SchaufuSS, 1892 and in very few species of two extant genera .…”

“…The close phylogenetic relationships with the genus Rhagonycha eSchScholtz, 1830 are only apparent and probably not genuine, limited only to the third tarsomere being simple and not emarginated at the apex, to the insertion of the fourth tarsomere apical, and to the pronotum unrounded laterally and sometimes slightly anteriorly constricted. The Holarctic genus Rhagonycha, also known in the fossil stage (Kazantsev 2013, Fanti 2017, has bifid claws (Fitton 1973, Pelletier andHébert 2014), while the claws of the genus Sucinorhagonycha are simple, without teeth or lobes (Pankowski and Fanti 2023).…”

First Record of the Genus Cartorhynchites Voss, 1958 (Coleoptera: Rhynchitidae) from Eocene Baltic Amber with a List of Fossil Tooth-Nosed Snout Weevils

“…Studies of the fossil Coleoptera fauna in Baltic amber have been particularly intensive in the last decade. An especially large amount of material has been processed, or sufficient study progress has been made for such beetle groups as, for example, the predatory Cantharidae [ 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 ] and Coccinellidae [ 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 ], as well as the herbivorous Cerambycidae [ 119 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 ]. New descriptions of species and genera have significantly added to the picture of the fossil beetle assemblage in the Fennosarmatian lan...…”