Amelyris (Asymelyris) lupatus Tshernyshev, Alekseev, Bukejs, Vasilenko, Legalov

Tshernyshev, Sergei E., Alekseev, Vitalii, Bukejs, Andris, Vasilenko, Dmitry V., Legalov, Andrej A. & Perkovsky, Evgeny E., 2025, First record of the family Melyridae (Coleoptera: Cleroidea) in late Eocene European ambers with description of a new tribe, a new genus and seven new species, Zootaxa 5696 (4), pp. 542-566 : 556-558

Amelyris (Asymelyris) lupatus Tshernyshev, Alekseev, Bukejs, Vasilenko, Legalov & Perkovsky, sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

( Figs 17–19 )

Type material: Holotype No KAM 4915 [ KRAM], adult, male; Baltic amber . A small elongate piece of transparent amber 21 × 7 × 3 mm in size and preserved without supplementary fixation, with the beetle situated in central part of the piece and diagonally located to the longitudinal axis of the piece. Pronotum, lateral portion of mesothorax and anterior third of elytra are not clearly visible due to milky-white coating and opacities of amber matrix. A thermal processing of the amber piece in an autoclave is assumed based on the dark, semitransparent halo-like coloration in cracks around of the inclusions. Syninclusions consist of few stellate Fagaceae trichomes. Locus typicus. Southeastern Baltic Sea coast, the Sambian peninsula , Kaliningrad Oblast. Stratum typicum. Baltic amber, late Eocene.

Description. Body integument unicolorous dark (as preserved), at certain lighting showing greenish metallic sheen; legs brown to light brown; dorsal setae brown. Body elongate and subparallel, depressed, not convex, not expanded and evenly rounded posteriorly with jointly rounded elytral apices. Measurements: body length (combined length of elytra, pronotum, and visible part of declined head along midline, measured dorsally) 2.8 mm; body maximum width across elytra 1.1 mm; pronotum length 0.65 mm; pronotum maximum width 0.8 mm; elytra width at base (combined) 0.9 mm; elytra length 2.15 mm.

Head prognathous, not sculptured, subrounded, slightly protruding distally and narrower than pronotum at eye level; compound eyes small, round-oval, bare, not protruding, frons and interocular area flat, lacking impressions. The surface of head densely punctured, with distinct micro-sculpture, covered with short, adpressed hairs giving surface cellular appearance in amber mass. Antennae 11-segmented, attached to head near inferior edge of eyes, short, reaching base of pronotum; antennomeres 4–10 asymmetrically dilated; with five apical antennomeres forming indistinctly loose club. Antennomeres 1 and 2 swollen, round-oval; antennomere 2 about 0.5× as long as antennomere 1, moderately narrow; antennomere 3 elongate, subconic, slightly longer as antennomere 2; antennomeres 4–10 cup-shaped and transverse; antennomere 4 about 2.0× as wide as antennomere 3 and 1.5× as narrow as antennomere 5; antennomeres 5 and 6 equal size and 1.2× as narrow as antennomere 7; antennomeres 7–10 equal in size; antennomere 11 elongate-oval, moderately narrow, longer than antennomere 10. Antennae with erect, fine, light pubescence visible on outer margins of antennomeres. Terminal maxillary palpomere large, 3.0× as long as previous palpomere, spindle-form, narrowly rounded apically.

Pronotum convex, weakly transverse, about 1.2× wider than long, appears rectangular due to straight distal and basal margins and straight upper lateral carina, all angles acute and almost completely right-angled; laterally with typical dicarinate margins: upper carina straight, lower carina roundly prominent. Surface evenly and densely punctate, but poorly visible due to blanking in the amber mass. Disc distinctly impressed at anterior and posterior angles. Margin of upper carina with small denticles, margin of lower carina with strong scalloped denticles. Distal margin of pronotum also rough, with denticles.

Scutellar shield short, broad, transverse, small, rectangular, with acute angles and straight sides.

Elytra carinate, parallel, suboval, very slightly expanded posteriorly, evenly rounded and slightly narrowed at apex, completely covering abdomen. Elytral apices jointly rounded. Bases of elytra distinctly wider than pronotum. Humeri small, not prominent, with distinct carina over humerus near base of carina 4. Elytral disc shiny. Each elytron with five thin and not strongly elevated carinae spanning from base to the apical part; first carina close to suture and entire from base to apex of elytra, not coincides with sutural margin; carinae 2 and 3 continued to end of elytral slope and terminate just at flattened apices, parallel and not merged; carina 4 started below humerus and reaching end of elytral slope; carina 5 strongly coincides with upper margin of epipleuron and continues to elytral apex. Intervals between carinae even and broad, with three rows of punctures separated by distance of one-half diameter of each puncture. Sides of elytra narrowly flattened and curved dorsally from level of humeri to elytral apex. Surface between punctures with distinct microsculpture. Epipleura gradually narrowed apical, with row of sparse punctures and distinct microsculpture; margins with small, sharp, distinct denticles. Metathoracic wings well developed.

Legs short, simple. Femora flattened; tibiae thin, slightly widened anteriorly.Tibial spurs short, sharp.Tarsomeres compressed; tarsomere 1 about 2.5× shorter than tarsomere 2 in anterior and intermediate legs, metatarsomere 1 about 2.0× shorter than metatarsomere 2; tarsomeres 2–4 in all legs equal in size; ultimate tarsomere largest, subcylindrical and equal in length to tarsomeres 3–4 combined. Tarsal claws wide, short, not sharp, denticulate. Surfaces of legs coarsely punctured; covered with fine, short, adpressed pubescence. Pubescence of tarsomeres arranged on apical edge of ventral side.

Ventral side slightly convex, shiny, densely pubescent, with short adpressed dark hairs. Ventrites 1 and 2 most likely connate and have not changed their configuration after ventrally curved abdomen. Pygidium and apical ventrite simple, transverse, depressed or emarginated.

Etymology. The epithet of the new species lupatus (Latin adjective meaning ‘jagged’) refers to the denticulated both carinae of pronotum and elytral margin in the species.

Figures

FIGURES 17–19. Amelyris (Asymelyris) lupatus sp. nov., male, holotype, No. KAM 4915 [KRAM], microphotographs: 17— habitus in dorsal view; 18—habitus in ventral view; 19—habitus, left fronto-lateral view. Scale bars = 0.5 mm for Figs 17 and 18; 1.0 mm for Fig. 19.