Archaeoluprops groehni, Nabozhenko & Perkovsky & Nazarenko, 2023

Nabozhenko, Maxim V., Perkovsky, Evgeny E. & Nazarenko, Vitaliy Yu., 2023, A new tribe, genus and species of the tenebrionid subfamily Lagriinae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from the Eocene Baltic amber, Zootaxa 5231 (5), pp. 584-590 : 587-588

Archaeoluprops groehni sp. n.

( Figs 1 , 2 )

Material. Holotype, ♁: GPIH no. 5075, CCGG no. 4360

Type locality. Baltic Sea coast, Yantarny settlement (formerly Palmnicken), Sambian (Samland) Peninsula, Kaliningrad Region, Russia .

Description. Body length—near 4.5 mm. Body robust, weakly convex, shiny, pubescent dorsally.

Head widest at eye level, eyes large, convex, reniform. Anterior margin of epistoma straight. Genae elevated, lateral margins of genae evenly rounded. Fronto-epistomal depression presented. Scapus thickened, wider, than at least antennomeres 2–4. Antennomere 3 not longer, than 4. Puncturation of head coarse and sparse (puncture diameter on frons and epistoma 1.5–2 times shorter than interpuncture distance).

Prothorax. Pronotum transverse, lateral margins moderately rounded, straight only near base. Anterior margin widely evenly emarginated, base slightly bisinuate. Anterior margins weakly projected, obtuse, widely rounded at apex, posterior ones almost straight, pointed at apex. Disc of pronotum weakly convex, lateral sides flattened and explanated at basal half. Puncturation of pronotum coarse and dense on lateral sides (puncture diameter slightly longer than interpuncture distance), punctures round, deep; each puncture bears short suberected seta. Lateral margins and base coarsely beaded; anterior margin beaded only near angles. Prosternal process wide, flattened.

Pterothorax. Scutellum with rounded margins and acute apex. Elytra elongate, weakly convex, covered with long (longer than on pronotum) suberected hairs directed backward, coarsely and unevenly punctured by round, moderately dense punctures, estriate. Humeral angles widely rounded, obtuse. Lateral deflected elytral border very narrow. Epipleura gradually narrow and almost reach sutural angle. Mesocoxal cavities open, trochantine not visible. Meso- and metaventrite, mesepimeron and metepisterna with coarse and moderately dense puncturation, mesepisterna with sparse and less finer puncturation.

Abdomen.Abdominal ventrites densely punctured by comparatively small punctures. Intersegmental membranes absent between 3–5 ventrites. Ventrite 5 not beaded at apex. Male inner sternite VIII elongate, with obtuse apices.

Legs short,densely and finely punctured.Tibiae straight.Protarsomeres 1and 2subequal in length; mesotarsomere 1 slighly longer than the second one; first metatarsomere 2 times as long as the second one.

Etymology. The species is named in honour of Carsten Gröhn, who made an extraordinary contribution to the study of the fossil amber insects.

Comparative diagnosis. See above.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Archaeoluprops groehni, gen. and sp. n., habitus: A—dorsal view; B—ventral view.

FIGURE 2. Archaeoluprops groehni, gen. and sp. n., details of structure:A—head and pronotum, dorsal view; B—pterothorax, ventral view (shows that mesocoxal cavities open, and trochantine is absent): Ms—mesoventrite, Ms-est—mesepisternum, Msepm—mesepimeron, Ms-cox—mesocoxae, Mt—metaventrite, Mt-est—metepisternum, Mt-epm—metepimeron.