Paraphloeostiba dominicana sp. nov.: The first omaliine rove beetle from Dominican amber (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Omaliinae)

Abstract

Paraphloeostiba dominicana Shavrin & Jenkins Shaw, sp. nov. from mid-Miocene Dominican amber is described and illustrated. It represents the first species of the rove beetle subfamily Omaliinae from this Neotropical fossil deposit and represents a genus that is not known among the extant fauna of the Neotropics. The new species, embedded within a large piece of amber, was scanned using X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT), to enable the study of its morphology, including the male genitalia (aedeagus). Based on the revealed characters, the new species is compared with extant and extinct species of the genus Paraphloeostiba Steel, 1960 whose wide extant distribution is confined to the (sub)tropical zones of the world except the Neotropical region and whose fossil record is otherwise known from two species preserved in Eocene Baltic amber from Denmark and Russia. The systematic placement of the genus within the tribe Omaliini, its current and historical ecology and biogeography, as well as the probability that it will be found in the recent Neotropical fauna among the unrevised and undescribed species of Omaliinae are discussed.