Revisiting the Raractocetus Fossils from Mesozoic and Cenozoic Amber Deposits (Coleoptera: Lymexylidae)

Yan-Da Li; David Peris; Shûhei Yamamoto; Yun Hsiao; Alfred F Newton; Chen-Yang Cai

doi:10.3390/insects13090768

Revisiting the Raractocetus Fossils from Mesozoic and Cenozoic Amber Deposits (Coleoptera: Lymexylidae)

Insects. 2022 Aug 25;13(9):768. doi: 10.3390/insects13090768.

Authors

Yan-Da Li^{1

2}, David Peris^{3

4}, Shûhei Yamamoto⁵, Yun Hsiao^{6

7}, Alfred F Newton⁸, Chen-Yang Cai^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Centre for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
² School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
³ Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l'Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
⁴ Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
⁵ Hokkaido University Museum, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan.
⁶ Australian National Insect Collection, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
⁷ Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.
⁸ Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA.

Abstract

The fossils once assigned to Raractocetus Kurosawa from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic amber deposits differ from extant Raractocetus in the longer elytra, the more strongly projecting metacoxae, and the hind wing with vein 2A forked. Thus, these fossils should be removed from Raractocetus. Cretoquadratus engeli Chen from Kachin amber appears to be conspecific with R. fossilis Yamamoto. As a result, R. fossilis and R. extinctus Yamamoto from Kachin amber, R. balticus Yamamoto from Baltic amber, and R. sverlilo Nazarenko, Perkovsky & Yamamoto from Rovno amber are transferred to Cretoquadratus Chen, as C. fossilis (Yamamoto) comb. nov., C. extinctus (Yamamoto) comb. nov., C. balticus (Yamamoto) comb. nov., and C. sverlilo (Nazarenko, Perkovsky & Yamamoto) comb. nov., and C. engeli syn. nov. is suggested to be a junior synonym of C. fossilis.

Keywords: Atractocerinae; Cretoquadratus; Kachin amber; ambrosia beetle.

Abstract

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