A new genus and species of the rove beetle tribe Mesoporini from Baltic amber (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae)

Abstract

A new extinct rove beetle, Palaeomesoporus electiricus gen. et sp.n., is described from a single specimen of Eocene Baltic amber. This fossil beetle is placed in the tribe Mesoporini, a ‘basal’ group of the mega-diverse subfamily Aleocharinae. Palaeomesoporus is easily discriminated from other mesoporine genera due to its less-developed antennal club, longer and slender elytron lacking a sinuate posterior margin, and prominently shorter mesotarsus. This finding sheds light on the paleodiversity and evolutionary history of the tribe and ‘basal’ Aleocharinae.

Keywords:

• Mesoporini
• new genus
• ‘basal’ Aleocharinae
• Eocene
• fossil resin

Acknowledgements

SY is grateful to Dr Toshiya Hirowatari (Kyushu University, Fukuoka) for critically reading the earlier version of our manuscript. SY also thanks Dr. David Grimaldi (AMNH) for the acquisition of specimen number. SY expresses gratitude to Drs. Alfred F. Newton (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) and Vitaly I. Alekseev (Kaliningrad State Technical University, Kaliningrad) for literature. Finally, we sincerely thank Dr Stylianos Chatzimanolis (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga) and an anonymous reviewer for improving our manuscript. This paper is a contribution from the Entomological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan (Ser. 7, No. 25).