A new species and a key to Isomira Mulsant, 1856 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Alleculinae) from Eocene Baltic amber

Abstract

Based on a single well-preserved specimen from Eocene Baltic amber, a new comb-clawed beetle Isomira lobanovi sp. n. (Alleculinae: Alleculini: Gonoderina) is described and illustrated. The new species belongs to the subgenus Mucheimira Novák, 2016, with extant species distributed in South China, Himalaya and the south of Arabian Peninsula. Isomira lobanovi sp. n. is the most similar to I. (Mucheimira) avula Seidlitz, 1896 from Baltic amber, but differs from the latter by the following characters: antennae longer, distinctly moderately serrate; antennomere 11 clearly longer than antennomere 10; antennomere 3 with sharply obliquely truncate apical margin. A key to fossil species of Isomira Mulsant, 1845 from Baltic amber is given. The Mesozoic species Jurallecula grossa Medvedev, 1969 must be excluded from the subtribe Alleculina and considered as Alleculini incertae sedis. Two late Eocene species of Isomira from the Florissant Formation (North America) have no distinct characters of the genus, and one of them, “Isomira” aurora Wickham, 1914 would be better interpreted as Coleoptera incertae sedis. The subgenus Mucheimira is considered as a basal group in the genus Isomira. Two Triassic taxa, Menephiloides minensis Fujiyama, 1973 and Adelidium cordatum Tillyard, 1918, are proposed to interpret as Coleoptera incertae sedis

Keywords

• tenebrionidae
• alleculinae
• isomira
• baltic amber
• eocene
• new species
• key