A new subfamily of hide beetles from the Cretaceous of northern Myanmar (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Trogidae)

ABSTRACT

With four genera and some 330 extant species, the Trogidae are a small group of scarabaeoid beetles that feed on hard keratinous tissue. Here, the first hide beetle from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, Kresnikus beynoni gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated, representing the first trogid preserved in fossilised resin. A new subfamily, Kresnikinae subfam. nov., is erected for the unusual species, characterised by frons and clypeus completely fused, a deflexed anteromedial portion of the frontoclypeal region, clypeus with a straight anterior margin, subtriangular scutellum, pronotum and elytra with simple setae, mesocoxal cavities separated by a rounded metaventrite process, metatibial spurs as long as the first metatarsal segment, and metatarsi sparsely pubescent. Kresnikus beynoni gen. et sp. nov. shows several seemingly ancestral characters including separated mesocoxae and small body size, hinting at a Gondwanian origin of hide beetles. The fossil record of the family Trogidae is reviewed and an annotated checklist of fossil taxa is provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Keratin beetles
• new subfamily
• new species
• historical biogeography
• Burmese amber
• catalogue

Acknowledgments

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grants XDB26000000 and XDB18000000; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 41688103 and 41672011; and the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research under Grant 2019QZKK0706.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41672011,41688103]; the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research [2019QZKK0706]; and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB18000000,XDB26000000].