Cryptophilus karinae, Lyubarsky & Legalov & Vasilenko & Perkovsky, 2024

Cryptophilus karinae sp. nov.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:056FF89F-F380-415E-99A5-41950EA999C3

Figs. 1-3 View Figure 1 View Figure 2 View Figure 3

Type material. Holotype: NHMD-620235, Yantarnyj, Baltic amber, late Eocene. Syninclusion: Hemiptera incertae sedis.

Description

Body parallel-sided, covered by outstanding pubescence, 2.1 times as long as wide ( Fig. 1A View Figure 1 ), dorsum convex. Body length 2.2 mm, width 0.95 mm. Head width including eyes 0.75 of the pronotal width. Shape of eye hemispherical, eyes relatively large. Length of eye equals to half length of head. Distance between the eyes equals to 2.5 diameters of eye. Facets diameter is medium, bigger than diameter of puncture. Punctuation of head: punctures small, distance between neighbouring punctures equals to 2 diameters of puncture. Frons weakly convex, punctuate. Antennae with 11 segments including 3- segmented club, relatively long, reaching beyond hind edge of pronotum. Antennal club slightly flattened. Club with 3 loosely connected segments, 9 th and 10 th antennomeres conical, 9 th subquadrate, 10 th slightly transverse ( Figs 1B View Figure 1 , 3A View Figure 3 ). 1 st antennomere broad, elongate. 2 nd antennomere elongate, at least 1.5 times as long as wide. 3 th antennomere longest of the flagellomeres, elongate, at least 2 times as long as wide. Antennomeres 3, 5, 7 strongly elongated, approximately 2 times as long as wide, antennomeres 2, 4, 6 weakly elongated, 1.5 times as long as wide. 4 th antennomere equals in length to 6 or 8. 5 th antennomere equals in length to 7, 1.5 times as long as 4 or 6. Terminal antennomere oval, 1.3 times as long as wide. Antennal furrows absent.

Sides of pronotum without callosity and teeth. Length of pronotum in 0.55 times longer than wide, equal to 0.3 length of elytra. Anterior margin weakly sinuate. Lateral margin weakly rounded. Lateral margins and base of pronotum with border. Base of pronotum with shallow transverse depression; basal pits present, basal furrow absent, short longitudinal basal keel absent. Posterior margin sinuated, with basal lobe. Pronotum weakly punctated, distance between neighbouring punctures about 1.5-2 diameter of puncture. Posterior angles obtuse. Distance between metacoxae less than length of metacoxa. Pro-, meso-, and metasternum strongly and densely punctated, distance between neighbouring punctures equals to diameter of puncture. Legs slender, tibia slightly dilated apically. Tibia with crown of bristles in apex, without spurs ( Fig. 2A View Figure 2 ). Tarsi 5-5-5, tarsomeres elongated, with lobes ( Figs 2A View Figure 2 , 3A View Figure 3 ). Tarsomeres 1–3 elongate, tarsomere 1 two times as long as 2, tarsomeres 2 and 3 about equal in length, tarsomere 3 1.5 times as long as 4, the longest being tarsomere 5, which is almost equal in length to tarsomere 1 and 2 combined. Claw without notches, smooth, about 1/2 of the length of the 5th tarsomere.

Scutellum transverse, 2 times as long as wide. Elytral length 1.75 times greater than width. Elytra narrowed and rounded apically. Elytra strongly and confused punctate, distance between neighbouring punctures about 2 diameters of puncture. Elytral margin expanded, bordered. Elytral epipleura long, complete. Number of ventrites: 5. Abdominal ventrite 1 only slightly longer than ventrite 2 ( Figs. 2A, 2B View Figure 2 ). Submetacoxal line present ( Fig. 2B View Figure 2 ). Abdominal punctures with bristles.

Etymology. In honour of Karin Nordmann, who assembled the collection in which the holotype was discovered.

Remarks. This species is similar in appearance to the genus Xenophagus Lyubarsky & Perkovsky, 2017 , but is easily distinguished from it by its absent spurs on the tibia and lobed tarsomeres.

The new species differs from the worldwide widespread species Cryptophilus simplex (Wollaston, 1857) by its slender antennal club.

Discussion

It is the second extinct species of the genus Cryptophilus from the Eocene.

Telmatophilus britannicus Kirejtshuk & Kurochkin, 2019 was previously described from a very poorly preserved specimen ( Kirejtshuk et al. 2019). This species has been transferred to the genus Cryptophilus ( Lyubarsky & Perkovsky 2020) : Cryptophilus britannicus ( Kirejtshuk & Kurochkin, 2019) .

We re-examined the Telmatophilus britannicus type ( Fig. 3B View Figure 3 ). The material is extremely poorly visible and the definition is quite dubious. This is not Telmatophilus , since the epipleurae of the elytra are complete and extend beyond the metathorax. If we assume that this specimen belongs to a family close to cryptophagids, it is an erotilid, probably Cryptophilus . However, almost no diagnostic characters of the genus are visible.

An extant Cryptophilus specimen was dissected and the submetacoxal lines were found available (in dorsal view) after the preparation. This is a known diagnostic character of the genus C ryptophilus, and if present, it must be available in the Bembridge specimen as well.

So the first well-described Eocene Cryptophilus is given in this article: Cryptophilus karinae sp. nov. The new species can be distinguished by its size: Cryptophilus karinae sp. nov. is much longer (2.2 mm), vs. Cryptophilus britannicus size 1.6 mm. These differences are greater than the intraspecific variability of extant Cryptophilus species. The new species differs in the ratio of the lengths of the pronotum and elytra; in the new species, the elytra is relatively longer.

Erotylidae fossils from European amber were reviewed in Lyubarsky et al 2023, later one erotylid genus and three species were described (one species from Danish amber and two species from Baltic amber) ( Lyubarsky et al. 2024 a, b; this paper). Now two languriine species, including Thallisellites augustinusii Lyubarsky et al., 2024a , Ceratonotha mumia (Alekseev & Bukejs, 2017) ( Pharaxonothinae ), and two xenosceline genera and species are known from Baltic amber ( Lyubarsky et al. 2023, 2024 a, b). Cryptophilus karinae is the first representative of the extant Palearctic erotylid genus in the Baltic amber.

Acknowledgments

Authors thanks for the pics of the Bembridge specimen to keeper Richie Howard, images courtesy Dmitry Telnov (both from Natural History Museum, London). The EEP research was supported by the Scholars at Risk Ukraine (SARU) programme, jointly funded by the Villum Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the grant “Support and development of the amber collection of the Statens Naturhistoriske Museum (continuation)” from Dr. Bøje Benzons Støttefond.

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