Markus karenae: A new species of Silinine Soldier Beetle from Russian Baltic Amber.

Soldier Beetles, Cantharidae, are an extremely diverse and widespread group of elongate, soft-bodied Beetles related to Click Beetles and Fireflies, found on every continent except Antarctica.. They get their name from the red colouration of one of the earliest species descried, which resembled the colour of the red jackets worn by British soldiers in the eighteenth century, rather than any particularly aggressive behaviour. They are most commonly found in forested environments, where they feed on leaf-dwelling invertebrates and pollen and nectar from flowers. Soldier Beetles have a fossil record dating back to the Early Cretaceous, though most fossil Soldier Beetles known are from post-Cretaceous deposits. The Silinae are a species rich and widespread subfamily of Soldier Beetles, that reach their maximum diversity in South Asia and South America. They are less common in temperate regions, though there are a few abundant species in Europe and Siberia. The earliest members of this subfamily date from the Eocene, where they have been found in Baltic Amber from Russia and sediments from Colorado.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 10 January 2018, Fabrizion Fanti of Piazze in Sienna, Italy, and Michael Pankowski of Rockville in Maryland, USA, describe a new species of Soldier Beetle from Russian Baltic Amber.

Baltic amber is the preserved resin of Eocene Coniferous Trees that formed huge forests covering much of Scandinavia and Northern Europe between about 56 and 34 million years ago. Since this amber floats, it is often found on beaches around the Baltic Sea, and sometimes further afield, making the precise dating of individual pieces difficult.

The new species is named Markus karenae, on honour of Mark and Karen Pankowski, the parents of Michael Pankowski. It is described from a single male specimen, from a piece of amber found in a quarry near Yantarny in Kalingrad Oblast (State), Russia. The specimen is 4.5 mm in length, with long antennae (3.0-3.5 mm), a rounded head and an oval body.

Markus karenae in Baltic amber. Scale bar is 1.0 mm. Fanti & Pankowski (2018).

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Kuskaella macroptera: A new species of Malthinine Soldier Beetle from Eocene Baltic Amber.

Soldier Beetles, Cantharidae, are an extremely diverse and widespread group of elongate, soft-bodied Beetles related to Click Beetles and Fireflies, found on every continent except Antarctica.. They get their name from the red colouration of one of the earliest species descried, which resembled the colour of the red jackets worn by British soldiers in the eighteenth century, rather than any particularly aggressive behaviour. They are most commonly found in forested environments, where they feed on leaf-dwelling invertebrates and pollen and nectar from flowers. Soldier Beetles have a fossil record dating back to the Early Cretaceous, though most fossil Soldier Beetles known are from post-Cretaceous deposits. The Malthininae are one of five subfamilies of Soldier Beetles, distinguished by a smaller size, reduced elytra (wing cases) leaving the ends of the wings exposed, and a habit of mating abdomen-tip to abdomen-tip, rather than with the male on top as in other groups.

In a paper published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica on 18 September 2017, Fabrizio Fanti of Piazze in Italy and Janusz Kupryjanowicz of the Andrzej Myrcha Nature Center at the University of Białystok, describe a new species of Malthinine Soldier Beetle from a piece of Middle-to-Late Eocene Baltic Amber from the coast of the Gdansk Region in Poland.

The species is named Kuskaella macroptera, where 'Kuskaella' honours Antoni Kuśka (1940–2010), for his expertise on Soldier Beetles, and 'macroptera' means 'large wings' in reference to the elongate elytra of the species. The species is described from two specimens, a male and a female, preserved in the same piece of amber, the male being 3.5-3.6 mm in length and the female 3.9-4.2 mm.

Soldier Beetle Kuskaella macroptera in Baltic amber, middle Eocene to late Eocene; Poland, Gdańsk region. Male in dorsal and female in ventral views. Fanti & Kupryjanowicz (2017).

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Archaeomalthodes rosetta: A new species of Malthenine Soldier Beetle from Late Cretaceous Burmese Amber.

Soldier Beetles, Cantharidae, are a large and diverse group of brightly coloured, soft-bodied, Beetles found on every continent except Antarctica. They are most commonly found in forested environments, where they feed on leaf-dwelling invertebrates and pollen and nectar from flowers. Soldier Beetles have a fossil record dating back to the Early Cretaceous, though most fossil Soldier Beetles known are from post-Cretaceous deposits. The Malthininae are one of five subfamilies of Soldier Beetles, distinguished by a smaller size, reduced elytra (wing cases) leaving the ends of the wings exposed, and a habit of mating abdomen-tip to abdomen-tip, rather than with the male on top as in other groups.

 

In a paper published in the journal Cretaceous Research on 15 September 2016, Yun Hsiao of the Departmentof Entomology at the National Taiwan University and the State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Ecology and Evolution at Sun Yat-Sen University, Adam Ślipiński of the Australian National Insect Collection, Congshuang Deng, also of the State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Ecology and Evolution at Sun Yat-Sen University, and of the College of Life Sciences at Capital Normal University, and Hong Pang, again of the College of Life Sciences at Capital Normal University, describe a new species of Malthinine Soldier Beetle from Late Cretaceous Burmese Amber.

 

The new species is named Archaeomalthodes rosetta, where ‘Archaeo-’ means ‘ancient’, ‘Malthodes’ is the name of the genus from which the Malthininae gets its name, and ‘rosetta’ refers to the Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to deciphering the Hieroglyphic script of Ancient Egypt, in the hope that the discovery of this species plays a similar role in deciphering the evolutionary history of the Cantharidae. The species is described from a single male specimen, 2.50 mm in length, from a piece of amber from Kachin State in Myanmar, from deposits which have been calculated to have a maximum age of 98.79 million years old.

 Archaeomalthodes rosetta, in Upper Cretaceous amber from Myanmar, lateral view. Scale bar is 0.5 mm. Hsiao et al.

The oldest known Soldier Beetle comes from Hammana/Mdeirij Amber from Central Lebanon, which is dated to about 125-135 million years ago (Early Cretaceous); however this specimen lacks the hind part of its body is missing, preventing the assigning of this specimen to any group.  The oldest Soldier Beetles that can be assigned to any such group have come from Late Cretaceous Burmese Amber, with a prior specimen referred to the Subfamily Cantharinae. The discovery of a second subfamily in Burmese Amber suggests that they had begun to diversify by this point, which implies that ecological roles common to different groups, such as feeding on pollen and nectar, had probably also arisen by this time.

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Lycocerus wenchuani: A new species of Soldier Beetle from Taiwan.

Soldier Beetles, Cantharidae, are an extremely diverse and widespread group of elongate, soft-bodied Beetles related to Click Beetles and Fireflies. They get their name from the red colouration of one of the earliest species descried, which resembled the colour of the red jackets worn by British soldiers in the eighteenth century, rather than any particularly aggresive behaviour. 

In a paper published in the journal Acta Entomologica Musie Nationalis Pragae on 15 July 2016, Yun Hsiao of the Department of Entomology at the National Taiwan University and Yûichi Okushima of the Kurashiki Museum of Natural History describe a new species of Solier Beetle from southern and southeastern Taiwan.

The new species is placed in the genus Lycoceras, an extremely specious Asian genus, with thirty six previously described species from Taiwan alone, and given the specific name wenchuani, in honour of Wen-Chuan Liao, who collected the first known specimen of the species and who is a citizen scientist who assists many Taiwanese taxonomists with the collection of material. The species is largely black in colour with yellow and brown markings, and reaches 4.5-5.0 mm in length. Females are slightly wider than the males, with slightly smaller eyes. The species was originally noted by the Jinshuiying Historic Trail in Pingtung County, but is thought to be present across south and southeastern Taiwan, at altitudes of 1000-1600 m above sealevel. Adults of the species appear from late spring into early summer.

Lycocerus wenchuani. (F) Male, and (G) female. Hsiao & Okushima (2016).

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