Madelinia, Alekseev & Pankowski, 2020

Alekseev, Vitalii I. & Pankowski, Maximilian G., 2020, The first new genus of the tribe Hypulini Seidlitz (Coleoptera: Melandryidae) described from late Eocene Baltic amber, Zootaxa 4869 (2), pp. 281-289 : 282-283

Genus Madelinia gen. nov.

Type species: Madelinia gedanoposita sp. nov., here designated.

Diagnosis. Madelinia gen. nov. ( Figs. 1–3 ) is assigned to the tribe Hypulini within Melandryinae based on the following combination of characters: (1) procoxae contiguous; (2) claws simple; (3) antennae 11-segmented; (4) base of pronotum closely associated with the base of elytra (not loosely laying over it as in Melandryini ); (5) head well visible from above (not vertically oriented as in Serropalpini ); (6) elytra elongated, narrowly ovate; elytral punctation irregular and elytral vestiture depressed (in contrast to Zilorini ); (7) lateral edges of pronotum not fully margined; (8) metatibia comparatively long (in contrast to Orchesiini ); (9) metatibial spurs comparatively short (in contrast to Orchesiini and Serropalpini ); (10) penultimate tarsomere of all legs lobed.

The new genus can be distinguished from all other described extant Hypulini of the Northern Hemisphere by the following set of characters: (1) hind wings present, macropterous (in contrast to the wingless genera Marolia and Nipponomarolia ); (2) scutellum visible (in contrast to Nipponomarolia ); (3) pronotal base distinctly margined (in contrast to Hypulus ); (4) pronotum with distinct basal triangular depressions (in contrast to Marolia and Neogonus ); (5) pronotal base slightly narrower than elytral base (in contrast to distinctly narrower pronotal base in Nipponomarolia and Neogonus ); (6) pronotum laterally margined at one third of posterior angles only (in contrast to Marolia ); (7) elytra uniformly dark colored (in contrast to the elytra with color pattern in Hypulus and Marolia ); (8) metatarsomere 1 not shorter than one half of metatibia (in contrast to Neogonus ).

Madelinia gen. nov. strongly resembles the European Marolia and the Holarctic Hypulus , but does not fully correspond to either extant genus, and therefore is placed into a new genus within the tribe. This new genus from Baltic amber can be easily distinguished from other Melandryinae described from Baltic amber using the combination of the abovementioned “tribal” characters 1, 4, 5, 7–9, as well the “generic” characters 3–6.

Note. Due to the “milky” opacity in the amber obscuring part of the specimen, the sutures of the head, the proand mesothorax, the precise length of the epipleura, the form of distal labial palpomere, detail of the mouthparts, and the form of the eye margins (incised anteriorly or not) were impossible to examine. Also, the genitalia remained internal and were not studied in the specimen.

Etymology. The name of the new genus, Madelinia , is of feminine gender. It is named after Madeline Pankowski (Rockville, Maryland, USA), sister of the second author, who donated this amber inclusion to the Museum of Amber Inclusions for further scientific study and preservation.

Remarks. The new genus is monotypic, represented by the type species only. Therefore, the generic description considerably overlaps that of the species.

Figures

FIGURES 1–2. Madelinia gedanoposita gen. et sp. nov., holotype, No MAIG 6692, habitus: 1) dorsal view; 2) right lateral view. Scale bars represent 1.0 mm.

FIGURE 3. Reconstruction of Madelinia gedanoposita gen. et sp. nov. from Baltic amber: habitus, dorsal view. Body length approximately 5.8 mm.