Orthocis larssoni Legalov et Perkovsky, 2024

Orthocis larssoni Legalov et Perkovsky , sp. nov.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:113059F4-4796-4B46-A04C-E2B0912807AB

( Fig. 4 View Figure 4 )

Type material. Holotype: NHMD 153503 with label ' Ciidae, A. Hennigsen / 9-9-1974 ', Danish amber, late Eocene. Syninclusion — Chthonioidea ( Pseudoscorpiones ).

Etymology. The epithet of this new species is dedicated to Sven Gisle Larsson from Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen (now NHMD), who published a first comprehensive overview of the European amber biota.

Description. Body black, oblong-oval, convex dorsally, glabrous. Clypeus without teeth. Forehead convex, wide. Eyes well protruded, coarsely faceted. Antennae clavate, probably ten-segmented. Antennomeres first and second oval. Third antennomere long-oval. Antennomeres four-nine suboval. Antennal club appears to consist of antennomeres eight–ten. Tenth antennomere cordate. Pronotum almost trapezoid, of same length as wide across apex and about 0.7 times as long as wide across base. Lateral margins narrow, slightly explanate, lacking bristles. Disc with densely subequal punctures. Scutellum small, subpentagonal. Elytra oval, densely and coarsely punctate, with lateral margins subparallel at basal three-fourths, widest at middle, about 1.6 times as long as wide across base, about 1.5 times as long as wide across middle, about 1.6 times as long as wide across apical fourth, about 1.6 times as long as pronotum, with indistinct humeri. Elytral striae absent. Metaventrite weakly convex, about 2.9 times as long as length of mesocoxal cavity, sparsely punctate. Metepisternum narrow, about 12.5 times as long as its median width, with row of punctures. Abdomen convex. First ventrite about 1.7 times as long as metacoxal cavity. Second ventrite about 0.5 times as long as first ventrite. Third ventrite about 0.9 times as long as second ventrite. Fourth ventrite about 0.8 times as long as third ventrite. Fifth ventrite subequal to ventrite four. Legs long. Femora clavate. Protibiae untoothed on the outer edge. Apex of protibiae simply rounded. Tarsi long, four-segmented. Last tarsomere very long. Body length: 1.8 mm.

Comparison. The new species differs from Orthocis kompantsevi Legalov et Perkovsky , sp. nov. in its larger body size, simple punctate pronotum and coarser and more densely punctate elytra.

Remark. Chthonioidea from fossil resins were epigean or endogean, so amber trap was situated on the base of the tree trunk ( Turbanov et al. 2024; Turbanov, pers. com. 2024); spread wing indicates that beetle rested on the trunk.

Discussion

Goldsmith C.V. Hennigsen from Thisted, northwestern Jutland (sometimes abbreviation "C.V." handwritten on the labels was mentioned in publicatons as "G.V." or even "B.V."), contributed not only two thirds of the Danish amber aphids, housed in NHMD until 1967 ( Heie 1967), but a lion share of other Danish amber inclusions as well (e.g., Simutnik et al. 2020; Simutnik & Perkovsky 2023; Shavrin et al. 2023; Legalov et al. 2024a; Lyubarsky et al. 2024 a, 2024b; Perkovsky et al. 2024) including 60% of ciid imagines.

Mycophagous beetles from Danish amber were nearly unstudied in details ( Larsson 1978) until the recent descriptions of two cryptophagids from the East African subgenus Neomicrambe ( Lyubarsky et al. 2024 a, 2024b), unknown from Baltic amber and a new mycetophagid genus ( Legalov et al. 2024b).

Species of the Orthocis are known to feed and breed almost exclusively in Auricularia and Exidia basidioms ( Lopes-Andrade 2010), and they are the only members of the Auricularia host-use group (Orledge & Reinolds 2005), so finding Orthocis in Danish amber is a first proxy for Auriculariaceae in the fossil record.

Acknowledgements

We thank Lars Vilhelmsen ( NHMD) for the loan of the specimen and useful advices, Ilya S. Turbanov ( Institute for Biology of Inland Waters, Yaroslavl Region, Russia) for Chthonioidea determination and anonymous reviewers for improving the overall quality of the manuscript. EEP’s research was supported by a “Support and development of the amber collection of the Statens Naturhistoriske Museum (continuation)” grant from Dr. Bøje Benzons Støttefond .

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