Succimorda Kubisz, 2001

Batelka, Jan, Rosová, Kateřina & Prokop, Jakub, 2023, Diversity and morphology of Eocene and Oligocene Mordellidae (Coleoptera), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 63 (2), pp. 451-478 : 454

Succimorda Kubisz, 2001

Succimorda rubromaculata Kubisz, 2001 Succimorda rubromaculata Kubisz,2001:274 . Holotype: ♀, Baltic amber.

Comments on identification. KUBISZ (2001: 273) established Succimorda as a new monotypic genus to accommodate the newly described S. rubromaculata . The genus, however, is insufficiently and incorrectly diagnosed and of doubtful validity.According to the author, it ‘seems closely related to Mordella … from which it differs markedly by naked [= glabrous] eyes and antennae being not serrate’. Mordella is a rather speciose genus with more than 400 species worldwide. For example, according to LILJEBLAD (1945), there are ten Mordella species in North America with glabrous eyes and all are still considered members of this genus (Hallan, unpublished catalogue). The shape of antennal segments in the different species vary, so their shape in S. rubromaculata , which is not very different from some extant species in having less serrate distal antennomeres, cannot justify the establishment of a new genus. There are some other discrepancies in the differential diagnosis, for example, in the statement ‘ Tomoxia Costa and related genera with naked eyes …’. Tomoxia belongs to an informal group of three genera together with Paratomoxioda Ermisch, 1954 and Tomoxioda Ermisch, 1950 , and in both Tomoxia and Paratomoxioda the eyes have interfacetal setae and are not glabrous according to HORÁK (2007).

Because there are no other extant species associated with this genus, we retain Succimorda as a purely extinct monotypic genus until a revision of the genus Mordella and the informal Mordella -group of genera sensu FRAN- CISCOLO (1989).