The first neotropical ground beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) from the Eocene of Ukraine: finding the first Old World ant nest beetle related to Eohomopterus in the Rovno amber

Abstract

The first record of the tribe Paussini Latreille is reported based on a specimen from late Eocene Rovno amber. It is the first known close relative of the genus Eohomopterus (subtribe Carabidomemnina) in the Old World. The recent and Neogene distribution of Eohomopterus is Neotropical, with extant representatives in Ecuador, Brazil and the West Indies, and extinct species in Dominican and Mexican amber. The occurrence of the Neotropical Carabidomemnina in Rovno amber and the presence of the Oriental Protopaussini in Dominican amber are of significant interest as evidence of the probable transarctic migrations of their ant host in the early Eocene.

A second species of Mesosmicrips Kirejtshuk, 2017 (Coleoptera: Smicripidae) from Kachin amber

“…Palmetto beetles are cryophobic, as well as many other taxa preserved in European amber (e.g. Jenkins Shaw et al 2023 and references therein), and Smicrips migration between the Americas and Europe could have occurred during one of the Eocene thermal optimums (Archibald et al 2023;Kirichenko-Babko & Perkovsky 2023).…”

The first fossil of subgenus Neomicrambe (Coleoptera: Cryptophagidae: Micrambe) from Danish amber

“…However, exactly half of Danish hymenopteran genera are now unknown from Baltic amber (Belokobylskij et al 2024b). In our opinion, this might be explained by many cryophobic elements in the Danish and Rovno amber forests living on the northern limits of their distribution (e. d. Dlussky et al 2014;Matalin et al 2021;Jenkins Shaw et al 2023;Kirichenko-Babko & Perkovsky 2023;Nabozhenko & Perkovsky (2023); Legalov et al 2023aLegalov et al , 2023bLyubarsky et al 2023;Telnov et al 2023;Belokobylskij et al 2023Belokobylskij et al , 2024aMelnitsky et al 2024;Sokolov et al 2024;Mamontov et al 2024). The subgenus Neomicrambe could be a good new example of a cryophobic taxa (see Archibald et al 2023).…”

Electroadicella unipetra sp. nov., a new fossil species of Leptoceridae (Insecta: Trichoptera) from Eocene Rovno amber

“…The aquatic larvae of caddisflies have no connections with the amber trees, although the adult insects might have localities for mating and estivation. Warmer (Belokobylskij et al 2023;Kirichenko-Babko & Perkovsky 2023) and supposedly more dry climate of Rovno as compared with Baltic amber forest as well as insularity of the Volhynian Uplift in late Eocene may result in more than 80% of Rovno amber caddisfly species being endemics or having northern distribution boundary at the late Eocene lying along the southern coast of the Subparathetys (Sokolov & Perkovsky 2020). The caddisflies of Baltic amber are well-studied (Ulmer 1912;Wichard 2013, etc.…”