A new species of minute Scydmaenini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae) in mid-Cretaceous amber from Myanmar

Abstract

Fossil evidence of the ant-like stone beetle tribe Scydmaenini is extremely rare. To date, only one genus and species, †Kuafu borealis Yin, Cai & Huang, has been reported from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, which was treated as a stem group of the tribe. Here we describe the second fossil species, †Scydmaenus minor Yin & Cai, sp. nov., also from Burmese amber. The new species possesses a majority of characters typical of the extant genus Scydmaenus Latreille, 1802, and may be characterized by the minute body size, a relatively large pronotum, the probably plesiomorphic short metatrochanters, and a combination of other morphological characters. Due to the current inadequate infrageneric classification of Scydmaenus, we place the new species as incertae sedis within the genus.