Orphilus dudkoi, Legalov & Háva & Vasilenko & Perkovsky, 2025

Legalov, Andrei A., Háva, Jiri, Vasilenko, Dmitry. V. & Perkovsky, Evgeny E., 2025, First record of the genus Orphilus Erichson, 1846 (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) from Eocene Baltic amber, Ecologica Montenegrina 88, pp. 209-214 : 210-214

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.37828/em.2025.88.14

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B6314E9E-E5BF-4FCA-B7BB-8DB2D28B8F03

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A13887D3-FFF4-FFC1-ED90-51F8ACE8F8E3

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Orphilus dudkoi
status

sp. nov.

Orphilus dudkoi sp. nov.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:915F10FF-7296-45EE-A54A-AC960F5DEA73

( Figs 1-2 View Figure 1 View Figure 2 )

Type material. Holotype: No. NHMD-612127; Baltic amber, late Eocene. Paratype: No. JHAC-FORP- 1; Baltic amber, late Eocene.

Note. Paratype is syninclused with one specimen of kleptoparasite fly Microphor Macquart, 1827 ( Diptera , Dolichopodidae , Microphorinae ) (see key in Shamshev & Perkovsky 2022). The holotype was covered by artificial resin before our study.

Etymology. The species is named after Dr Roman Yu. Dudko (Novosibirsk, Russia), who identified this specimen’s taxonomic position.

Diagnosis. This new species differs from Orphilus niger , O. aegeanus , O. africanus and O. beali in having a smaller body size, wider elytra and a narrower antennal club. It differs from the Eocene Orphilus dubius by body 1.63-1.76 times as long as wide (body 1.46 times as long as wide in O. dubius ).

Type locality and horizon. South-eastern Baltic Sea coast (Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia), Baltic amber, late Eocene.

Description. Holotype. Body black, rather wide. Cuticle smooth, shining, densely punctate. Head hypognathous, with large compound finely-faceted eyes. Median ocellus distinct and well developed. Forehead wide, convex, densely punctate. Antennae with 11 antennomeres. Antennomere 1 suboval, about 1.1 times as long as wide in middle. Antennomere 2 conical, about 1.9 times as long as wide at apex, about 0.7 times as long as and about 0.4 times as narrow as antennomere 1. Antennomeres 3 and 4 subconical. Antennomere 3 about 1.2 times as long as wide at apex, about 0.6 times as long as and of same width to antennomere 2. Antennomere 4 subequal to antennomere 3. Antennomeres 5 and 6 wideconical. Antennomere 5 about 0.8 times as long as wide at apex, slightly shorter and wider than antennomere 4. Antennomere 6 subequal to antennomere 5. Antennomeres 7 and 8 transverse. Antennomere 7 about 0.6 times as long as wide at apex, slightly longer and about 1.7 times as wide as antennomere 6. Antennomere 8 about 0.3 times as long as wide at apex, about 0.7 times as long as and about 1.3 times as wide as antennomere 7. Club consists of antennomeres 9-11. Antennomere 9 about 0.4 times as long as wide at apex, about 2.2 times as long as and about 1.6 times as wide as antennomere 8. Antennomere 10 subequal to antennomere 9. Antennomere 11 about 0.7 times as long as wide at base, about 1.6 times as long as and about 0.9 times as wide as antennomere 9. Pronotum companiform, convex, transverse, 0.6 times as long as its basal width, with distinct lateral margin. Distance between punctures on pronotal disc approximately two to three times their diameter. Base of pronotum biconcave. Scutellum triangular, punctate basally, about 0.8 times as long as basal width. Elytra about 1.1 times as long as wide at base and in middle, about 1.7 times as long as wide in apical fourth, and twice as long as pronotum. Punctures on cuticle larger than those on pronotum; at base, diameter of punctures and distance between them approximately equal or slightly smaller. Humeral calli indistinct. Elytral suture slightly convex in back two third of its length. Metaventrite convex, densely punctate, about 2.7 times as long as metacoxal length. Metepisternum broad, densely punctate. Abdomen convex, densely punctate. Ventrite 1 about 1.9 times as long as metacoxal length. Ventrite 2 about 0.8 times as long as ventrite 1. Ventrite 3 about 0.8 times as long as ventrite 2. Ventrite 4 of same length to ventrite 3. Ventrite 5 about 0.6 times as long as ventrite 4. Legs weakly flattened. Femora quite narrow, with groove for inserting tibiae. Tibiae narrow, with small spines on inner edge and apex. Tarsi long and narrow, shorter than tibiae. Tarsomere 1-4 quite short. Tarsomere 5 long, slightly shorter than tarsomere 3 and 4 combined. Tarsal claws simple and free. Body length: 2.6 mm, width: 1.6 mm.

Paratype. Body length: 3.0 mm, width: 1.7 mm.

Remarks. The new species has been placed in the genus Orphilus , in the tribe Orphilini , due to its glabrous body and slightly convex elytral suture over the last two-thirds of its length.

Discussion

Orphilus has two species in the Nearctic realm and seven in the Western Palearctic, but none in the Eastern Palearctic. While both Nearctic species are cold-tolerant, all Palearctic species except O. niger are cryophobic ( Beal 1985; Háva 2025). This distribution can be explained by their migration across the De Geer or Thule land bridges from Europe to North America in the Paleocene-Eocene ( Archibald et al. 2023), followed by the extinction of cryophobic species in northern and middle Europe after the Eocene.

Extant Orphilus species are commonly found on flowers growing at forest edges and in open environments. Brown rot, on which Orphilus View in CoL larvae develop, was certainly not associated with the Baltic amber tree. The Eocene European Orphilus View in CoL probably lived on “dry hillsides existing beyond the riparian zone”, in “an open, low biomass, woody savanna” as is reconstructed for Florissant ( Allen et al. 2020, p. 11). This would explain the rarity of Orphilus View in CoL in Baltic amber forest (see Legalov et al. 2024). Open environments are much more common in the Rovno amber forest than in the Baltic amber forest ( Dietrich & Perkovsky 2020; Perkovsky et al. 2020; Olmi et al. 2022), therefore, taxa associated with open areas (partially even halophilic), such as the Cardiocondyla View in CoL ants ( Radchenko & Khomych 2025), are found in Rovno amber. The discovery of these ants in the Eocene of Europe seemed unlikely earlier ( Radchenko 2016). Unfortunately, the number of inclusions known from Rovno amber is thousands of times lower than that from Baltic amber ( Perkovsky et al. 2010). However, as more are discovered, the likelihood of finding Orphilus View in CoL in the Rovno fauna increases. Another reason of O. dudkoi rarity could be phenology. Second author and many other entomologists collected Mediterranean Orphilus View in CoL imagines mostly from May through August; it is too late for amber trap ( Vilhelmsen et al. 2024). Moreover, Microphor View in CoL steal small prey from orbweb consisted mostly from winged aphids (86%) ( Nentwig 1985). In Baltic amber nearly all common aphids are wingless with few exceptions ( Heie 1967), so winged aphids are represented in different environment and/or season.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Lars Vilhelmsen (NHMD) for providing access to the specimen described in the paper, Alexandr P. Rasnitsyn (Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow), Igor V. Shamshev (Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg), Piotr Wegierek (University of Silesia, Katowice) and S. Bruce Archibald (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) for the discussion, Alisa A. Perkovsky (NHMD) for help with photography. Study of AAL was funded by the Federal Fundamental Scientific Research Program (grant No. 1021051703269-9-1.6.12; FWGS-2021-0004). The EEP research was supported by the Scholars at Risk Ukraine (SARU) programme, jointly funded by the Villum Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation and Novo Nordisk Foundation.

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Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Coleoptera

Family

Dermestidae

Genus

Orphilus

Loc

Orphilus dudkoi

Legalov, Andrei A., Háva, Jiri, Vasilenko, Dmitry. V. & Perkovsky, Evgeny E. 2025
2025
Loc

O. dudkoi

Legalov & Háva & Vasilenko & Perkovsky 2025
2025
Loc

Cardiocondyla

Emery 1869
1869
Loc

Orphilus

Erichson 1846
1846
Loc

Orphilus

Erichson 1846
1846
Loc

Orphilus

Erichson 1846
1846
Loc

Orphilus

Erichson 1846
1846
Loc

Orphilus

Erichson 1846
1846
Loc

Microphor

Macquart 1827
1827
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