Discovery of the rove beetle subfamily Trichophyinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in Upper Cretaceous Taimyr amber, Siberia, Russia

Abstract

The monogeneric rove beetle subfamily Trichophyinae (genus Trichophya) is reported from Upper Cretaceous Taimyr amber from Yantardakh in northern Siberia. The Taimyr specimen of Trichophya is assigned to the “pilicornis species-group” which contains the majority of extant species. It is differentiated from the single known trichophyine fossil Trichophya minor Yamamoto and Newton, 2021 from ca. 99 Ma mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber, which is placed in the “antennalis species-group” together with one recent species. Together with Trichophya minor, our newly discovered fossil Trichophya species demonstrates that the two morphologically different recent Trichophya species groups were already present far back in time. The taxonomy, biogeography and paleoecology of the Taimyr amber Trichophya is placed in the context of the known morphology, distribution and habitat requirements of the extant species.