Dieneremia, Reike, Hans-Peter, Alekseev, Vitaly I. & Bukejs, Andris, 2013

Reike, Hans-Peter, Alekseev, Vitaly I. & Bukejs, Andris, 2013, Dieneremia rueckeri, a new genus and species of minute brown scavenger beetle from Baltic amber, with notes on other fossil Latridiidae (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea), Zootaxa 3686 (3), pp. 381-388 : 382

Dieneremia gen. nov.

Type species: Dieneremia rueckeri sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Dieneremia is similar to recent members of the subfamily Latridiinae based on the procoxae separated by the prosternal process. The new genus shares the features of having furrows on the head, strongly convex eyes, and shape of the pronotum and elytra with Metophthalmus Motschulsky, 1850 . Dieneremia also shares the dorsoventrally flattened and elongate habitus with Dienerella Reitter, 1911 and Adistemia Fall, 1899 . Dieneremia and Cartodere Thomson, 1859 both have the frons with carinae, temples relatively long, and halo behind the mesocoxae with radial grooves. Furthermore, the new genus shares characters of Stephostethus Le Conte, 1878 (temples relatively long, regular striae of elytra, halo behind the mesocoxae with radial grooves), Latridius Herbst, 1793 , Enicmus C.G. Thomson, 1859 , and Thes Semenov Tian-Shansky, 1910 (because of the halo behind the mesocoxae with radial grooves).

Dieneremia can be reliably differentiated from the other genera of the subfamily Latridiinae based on the following combination of characters: 1) outer carinae of the frons apically toothed (only Metophthalmus and Cartodere have comparable carinae); 2) eyes large and strongly convex; 3) pro- and mesocoxae distinctly separated; 4) metaventrite separated from first abdominal ventrite (metaventrite and the first abdominal ventrite fused in Adistemia ); and 5) body flattened in cross-section (whereas other genera with small carinae on the head [e.g., Cartodere, Stephostetus ] have bodies less flattened and more convex).

Prior to this study, Archelatrius Kirejtshuk and Azar, 2009 from Lower Cretaceous Lebanese amber was the only paleoendemic genus of the subfamily Latridiinae known. However, Archelatrius is easily distinguished from Dieneremia by its lack of carinae or furrows on the head, possession of four longitudinal carinae on the elytra, transverse procoxae, subquadrate pronotum, and antennal structure.

Etymology. The name of the new genus is formed from the Latin roots of the latridiid genera Dienerella and Adistemia (“ dienere ” and “ mia ”); gender feminine.

Note. The new genus is monotypic, represented by the type species only. Therefore the generic description considerably overlaps that of the species (”descriptio generica specifica“).