Zopherinae Solier, 1834

Alekseev, Vitalii I. & Nabozhenko, Maxim V., 2023, News from Baltic amber: a new tribe of extinct Paleogene ironclad beetles (Coleoptera: Zopheridae: Zopherinae), Zootaxa 5297 (3), pp. 435-445 : 436

Subfamily Zopherinae Solier, 1834

Note. The beetle specimen in amber piece No KAM 8325/2 possesses the following set of morphological characters: (1) antennal insertions concealed under a lateral expansion of the frons and not visible in dorsal view; (2) 5–5– 4 tarsal formula; (3) intercoxal prosternal process expanded laterally at apex; (4) antennae 11-segmented with indistinct, weak 2-segmented club; (5) abdominal ventrite 5 with paired preapical grooves; (6) mesocoxal cavities closed laterally; (7) prosternum separated from hypomera by complete notosternal sutures.

The following features make it possible to distinguish the new species from Tenebrionidae : (1) outer edge of the abdominal ventrites is not formed into a groove which receives the elytral edges; (2) abdomen with ventrites separated by narrow band of sclerotized membrane, not connate.

The combination of these features in the fossil beetle allows it to be assigned to the subfamily Zopherinae and excluded from other externally similar groups (e.g., Tenebrionidae , Ulodidae , Colydiinae ). On the basis of these and other (see below) diagnostic characters, the specimen cannot be definitely attributed to any existing tribes of the subfamily and should be placed, in our opinion, in a separate new tribe.