Jiricateres damzeni Tshernyshev, Alekseev, Bukejs, Vasilenko, Legalov & Perkovsky, 2025

Tshernyshev, Sergei E., Alekseev, Vitalii, Bukejs, Andris, Vasilenko, Dmitry V., Legalov, Andrej A. & Perkovsky, Evgeny E., 2025, Jiricateres-new extinct genus of Lophocateridae (Coleoptera: Cleroidea) from late Eocene European amber, Zootaxa 5715 (1), pp. 476-488 : 481-483

Jiricateres damzeni Tshernyshev, Alekseev, Bukejs, Vasilenko, Legalov & Perkovsky , sp. nov.

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( Figs 13–19 )

Type material. Holotype No SIZK UA- 9999 (ex coll. Jonas Damzen, JDC-10189 R), adult, sex unknown; Rovno amber. Complete beetle included in elongate, yellow, transparent amber piece with dimensions 62 × 16 × 6 mm and preserved without supplementary fixation. Syninclusions are represented by one Diptera specimen, few small stellate Fagaceae trichomes, and few small organic fragments.

Locus typicus. Rovno Oblast, Ukraine.

Stratum typicum. Rovno amber, late Eocene.

Description. Body black, without metallic lustre, extremities black; elongate, widely oval, evenly expanded just about middle. Measurements: body length (from anterior margin of head to apex of elytra) 4.7 mm; body maximum width across elytra 2.2 mm; pronotum length 0.8 mm; pronotum maximum width 1.6 mm; elytra width at base (combined) 1.7 mm, elytra length 3.6 mm.

Head prognathous, flat, small, rounded, not protruding distally and not wider than pronotum at level of eyes; frontoclypeal suture weakly visible due to position of beetle in amber. Compound eyes round, weakly convex, bare, with distinct facetes, contour not elevated; behind eyes on lateral sides with row of strong semierect brown setae. Frons and interocular area weakly visible, but look slightly convex and lacking impressions. Surface of head evenly punctate and sparsely covered with strong, short, dark, semierect setae. Antennae 11-segmented, distinctly clavate, attached to head near lateral lower edge of clypeus just below eyes, short, reaching middle of pronotum; sparsely covered with short, black, erect setae apically; club 3-segmented, not compact, symmetrical, lacking sensorial fields; antennomere 1 slightly swollen, rounded; antennomere 2 oval, slightly shorter and distinctly narrower than antennomere 1; antennomere 3 slightly shorter, sybcylindrical; antennomeres 4–8 subtriangular and slightly elongate, each subsequent slightly wider at apex; antennomeres 9–11 wide and forming club, antennomere 9 about 1.4× as wide as antennomere 8 and nearly as wide as antennomere 10, antennomeres 9 and 10 equal in shape, antennomere 11 subround, slightly flattened and rounded apically, twice as long as antennomere 10. Clypeus, mandibles and labrum invisible. Maxillary palpi somewhat elongate, narrow; penultimate palpomere subtriangular; ultimate palpomere elongate, widened apically, suboval, 1.6× as long as penultimate palpomere, distinctly flattened and truncate at apex.

Pronotum weakly convex, narrow and transverse, 2.0× as wide as long, subparallel laterally and narrowed anteriorly. Anterior angles right-angled and slightly protruding; posterior angles rounded and weakly narrowed. All sides distinctly marginate, but anterior side with very thin edging; lateral sides with longitudinal narrow impressions and look flattened. Surface evenly punctate, microsculpture indistinct, with two rows of punctures along each lateral impression; sparsely covered with semierect, elongate setae. Prosternal process narrow not curved or delated at apex.

Scutellar shield clearly visible, transverse, oval-rectangular, with rounded angles, distinctly marginate and sparsely punctate.

Elytra simple, oval and subparallel, 1.6× as long as wide, slightly expanded in about posterior one-fifth and evenly rounded apically, very weakly convex, with widely flattened lateral sides from humeri towards apices of elytra, elytra at base not wider than pronotum. Elytral apices not closed; each elytron rounded separately. Humeri small, flattened, distinctly protruding towards pronotum. Elytral suture entire for along whole length of elytra, distinctly widened and flattened at basal one-quarter and gaping at apices. Each elytron with 6–7 narrow and weakly elevate carinae and with two rows of punctures between two neighboring carinae; punctures distinct; microsculpture weakly visible, not shining; sparsely covered with short, dark and semierect setae. Interval between 3 and 4 striae with incomplete additional striae on apical quarter of elytra. Epipleurae distinct and wide from base to elytral apex, sparsely punctate. Metathoracic wings normally developed.

Legs short, simple. Femora thickened towards middle; not flattened and not curved. Tibiae straight, shorter than femora, robust, with row of black short and sharp hairs on inner surface; with two thin spurs on pro- and mesotibiae, and one strong and one thin on metatibiae. Tarsi 5-5-5, but look like 4-tarsomered due to extremely short tarsomere 1, especially in hind legs; tarsomeres 1–4 compressed, tarsomere 5 depressed, with bare pedal part and row of long black setae ventro-laterally; tarsomere 1 shortest in all legs, about twice as short as pro- and mesotarsomere 2, and 2.5× as short as metatarsomere 2; tarsomeres 2–4 equal in length in fore and middle legs, but only metatarsomeres 2–3 equal in length and metatarsomere 4 slightly longer; tarsomere 5 longest in all legs, as long as combined length of tarsomeres 2–4 in fore and middle legs, and as long as combined length of tarsomeres 1–4 in hind legs. Claws short, thin and sharp, at base with distinct round plate apparently setose.

Underside weakly shining, finely and sparsely punctate and evenly covered with fine, short, recumbent pubescence. Prothorax marginated, with narrow straight process between procoxae, with sparse, short, thick semierect setae. Mesepimeres longitudinal. Abdomen with 5 visible ventrites. Pygidium (apical tergite) slightly domed, weakly curved ventrally. Ultimate ventrite 8 (apical sternite) simple, transverse, probably archly depressed at apex, with distinctly marginated outer side.

Etymology. The specific epithet is a patronym dedicated to Mr. Jonas Damzen ( Vilnius, Lithuania), an enthusiast and specialist in amber.

Figures

FIGURES 13–19. Jiricateres damzeni Tshernyshev, Alekseev, Bukejs, Vasilenko, Legalov & Perkovsky, sp. nov., holotype No UA-9999 [SIZK]; 13—microphotographs of habitus, dorsal view; 14—habitus, ventral view; 15—schematic drawing of habitus, ventral view; 16—microphotographs of habitus, left lateral view; 17—details of forebody, dorsal view; 18—details of forebody, ventral view; 19—details of thorax, lateral view. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.