The first fossil of a tenebrionoid taxonomic enigma: Agnathus Germar (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae: Agnathinae) in Bitterfeld amber, with remarks about age and geographic origin of the fossil

ABSTRACT

Based on an inclusion in Bitterfeld amber, the first extinct species of the subfamily Agnathinae (Pyrochroidae) is described and illustrated. Agnathus groehni sp. nov. differs from two extant congeners in having the smaller body size; transverse W-shaped groove near posterior pronotal margin; the unicolourous black body and the elytral pubescence uniform without tomentose pattern. As demonstrated herein, the genus Agnathus is morphologically stable over at least 23 Ma years and inhabited the Western Palaearctic already in the Palaeogene. Zoogeography of extant species, palaeobionomy of the extinct species and difficulties in its reconstruction, as well as age and origin of Bitterfeld amber, are briefly discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Tenebrionoidea
• new species
• fossil resin
• inclusion
• Cenozoic
• Palaeogene

Acknowledgments

We are sincerely grateful to Mr. Carsten Gröhn (Glinde, Germany) for the loan of interesting material and for photographic preparation. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and efforts to improve our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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