The first Mesozoic puppet beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea: Aderidae) from mid-Cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar

Abstract

Grzymalia wukong gen. et sp. nov. is described as the first named representative of Aderidae from the Mesozoic amber deposits, based on a single adult beetle inclusion in mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber, northern Myanmar (ca. 99 Ma). The new genus resembles several extant representatives of the tribe Euglenesini, with such characters as uniseriate elytral pubescence, fully visible from above the head; a subquadrate pronotum; and the general ratio and form of antennomeres. The new genus differs from other members of the tribe in having a complete suture between abdominal ventrites I and II, as well as sparse and long setae along the entire length of its metafemoral inner edge. The fossil is provisionally attributed to Euglenesini; however, the single known female specimen doesn't allow a formal and indisputable tribal placement without the study of a conspecific specimen of the opposite sex.