First false darkling beetle from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Coleoptera: Melandryidae)

Abstract

Tihelka, E., Huang, D. & Cai, C. 4 October 2019. First false darkling beetle from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Coleoptera: Melandryidae). Alcheringa 44, 169–175. ISSN 0311-5518 The false darkling beetles (Melandryidae) are a small but morphologically diverse and taxonomically problematic family belonging to the polyphagan superfamily Tenebrionoidea. The Mesozoic record of Melandryidae is sparse, with only three described species. A new genus and species, Longicrusa jaracimrmani gen. et sp. nov., is described here from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (ca 99 Ma), representing the oldest false darkling beetle described to date. The modified maxillary palpi of L. jaracimrmani gen. et sp. nov. suggest that the species probably fed on fungi, and its prominent pectinate spurs indicate that the ability to jump had already developed in false darkling beetles by the mid-Cretaceous. A checklist of fossil melandryid beetles is provided. Erik Tihelka [erik.tihelka@hartpury.ac.uk], Department of Animal Science, Hartpury College, Hartpury GL19 3BE, UK; Diying Huang [dyhuang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, PR China; Chenyang Cai* [cycai@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Centre for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China. *Also affiliated with: School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.