Necronectulus lazarus, Lee & Nam & Park, 2024

Necronectulus lazarus sp. nov.

Material. Holotype KNUL-1114-110

Etymology. The species name lazarus is derived from the term “Lazarus taxon”, which refers to a taxon that was initially considered to have disappeared from a particular period but later reappeared in the fossil record.

Locality and horizon. Goryeong-gun, Seongsan-myeon, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of Korea; Jinju Formation, Early Cretaceous, Albian.

Diagnosis. Large scutellum; 9 longitudinal striae grooved on the elytron.

Description. Overall body oval shape, with greatest width at posterior part of pronotum extending to anterior margin of elytra. Total body length 7.5 mm, width 4.5 mm. Head wider than long, and extremely narrowed anteriorly; frons wider than long; width of frons and clypeus almost equal from posterior to anterior parts; labrum rounded anteriorly; maxillary palp with three segments; compound eyes large; antennae long, with 11 antennomeres; lateral margin of pronotum slightly rounded, with both anterior and posterior margins straight; anterior corners sharp; a longitudinal groove running medially from pronotum to frons; anterior margin of elytra straight, elytra formed with nine longitudinally grooved striae; epipleuron thick; scutellum large, triangular in shape; adephagus protruded and rounded posteriorly. Ventral part of body poorly preserved, but several traces evident; precoxae contiguous with each other, and profemur wider distally; metacoxal plate extending laterally to meet epipleuron.

Remarks. Morphological features such as: head narrower than prothorax; Antennae inserted between the eyes and base of the mandible; Filiform shape antennae formed with 11 antennomeres; metacoxae extended laterally and meet with the lateral margins of body are features of the family Trachypachidae ( Ball 2000) . The overall body shape of KNUL-1114-110 is oval, with the head being transverse and wider than long. The length of the head is greater than that of the pronotum. The pronotum tapers roundly anteriorly, with both the posterior margin of the pronotum and the anterior margin of the elytra being straight. The antennae are short and slender. These features are characteristic of the genus Necronectulus ( Ponomarenko 1977) .