A new genus of the Araucarian-feeding tribe Oxycraspedini (Coleoptera: Belidae) from Eocene Baltic amber

ABSTRACT

The new genus, Bojebenzonia n. gen. and its species B. karinae n. sp. from the tribe Oxycraspedini (Belidae: Oxycoryninae) are described from late Eocene Baltic amber. Bojebenzonia differs from the genus Oxycraspedus by its tibiae lacking apical spurs, subparallel pronotal sides, weakly convex body, and wide tibiae. A list of fossil species of the subfamily Oxycoryninae and a key to tribes and subtribes of the subfamily Oxycoryninae are given. It is suggested that the new genus developed feeding on either the family Araucariaceae or Doliostrobaceae. Trophic associations of extant Oxycoryninae are briefly discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Curculionoidea
• Oxycoryninae
• species diversity
• trophic links
• fossil records

Acknowledgments

The authors thank A.G. Ponomarenko, A.P. Rasnitsyn, I.D. Sukatsheva (Moscow, Russia), Ch.W. O’Brien (Tallahassee, USA), G.O. Poinar, Jr. (Corvallis, USA), K.V. Andrushchenko (Kaliningrad, Russia), O. Jaeger and K.-D. Klass (Dresden, Germany) and U. Kotthoff (Germany, Hamburg) for providing comparative material of Oxycoryninae, S.B. Archibald (Vancouver, Canada) for improving the English in the manuscript, and anonymous reviewers for improving the overall quality of the manuscript; EEP was supported by Scholars at Risk Ukraine (SARU) program jointly funded by the Villum Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation and by the grant “Support and development of the amber collection of the Statens Naturhistoriske Museum” from Dr Bøje Benzons Støttefond.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).