First Mesozoic brachypsectrid beetles in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar (Coleoptera: Elateroidea: Brachypsectridae)

Abstract

With nine described species in two genera, Brachypsectridae is a small and widespread elateroid family. Fossil brachypsectrids have been confined to the Baltic and Dominican ambers, and very little is known about the early evolution of Brachypsectridae in the Mesozoic era. Here we describe and illustrate the first Mesozoic brachypsectrid, Vetubrachypsectra burmitica gen. et sp. nov., based on a male adult entombed in the mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar, approximately 99 million years ago. Vetubrachypsectra has a close affinity to the extant Brachypsectra, but primitively retains many plesiomorphic characters, including long antennae, tibial spurs 2-2-2 and male parameres without hook. Our discovery of a new Mesozoic brachypsectrid species pushes back the fossil record of Brachypsectridae by approximately 55 million years, which has great significance for further dating of phylogenetic trees of beetles.