Juratelacrima, Fanti & Damgaard, 2018

Fanti, Fabrizio & Damgaard, Anders Leth, 2018, Fossil soldier beetles from Baltic amber of the Anders Damgaard amber collection (Coleoptera Cantharidae), Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 18 (1), pp. 1-32 : 12

Genus Juratelacrima n. gen.

Type species. Juratelacrima ballingi n. sp. The genus is at present monotypic.

Etymology. From the name of Goddess (sometimes described as a mermaid or undine) Jūratė (Jurata in Polish), of the Lithuanian (and Baltic) legend/tale, plus the Latin noun (in apposition) “lãcrima” = tear, crying, resin (understood here as a tear of Goddess Jūratė). The Goddess lived under the Baltic Sea in a beautiful amber castle, when a young fisherman named Kastytis was disturbing the peace and catching a lot of fish, and Jūratė decided to punish him but instead fell in love. Thus, Perkūnas, the thunder god, furious that an immortal goddess had fallen in love with a mortal man, destroyed the amber castle (in other variations Perkūnas kills Kastytis). Therefore, the amber pieces found would be the remains of the castle or the tears of Jūratė, saddened by the death of Kastytis. Gender: feminine.

Diagnosis. The new genus is characterised by the third tarsomere straight at apex and not bilobed, claws simple with a small denticle at the base, the pronotum gibbous, which is anteriorly not narrow and with straight sides and expanded apical margin, and head slightly elongated behind eyes. The unequal maxillary palpomeres, with the last segment securiform, clearly make this new genus attributable to the subfamily Cantharinae .