Under the Cretaceous bark: Fossil evidence for the ancient origin of subcortical lifestyle of clown beetles (Coleoptera: Histeridae)

Abstract

We describe three new genera and four new species of the Histeridae (Coleoptera) from the mid-Cretaceous amber in Myanmar. Platycretus muscularis Simon Pražák & Lackner gen. & sp. nov. represents the first known fossil of the subfamily Histerinae from the Cretaceous. We assign the remaining three fossils, Olexum complanatum Simon Pražák & Lackner gen. & sp. nov., Cretanapleus seideli Simon Pražák & Lackner gen. & sp. nov., and Yethiha pubescens Simon Pražák & Lackner sp. nov. to the subfamily Dendrophilinae. Platycretus muscularis and O. complanatum have adaptations typical for the subcortical lifestyle (flattened body shape, dilated protibiae), proving this life strategy existed in independent lineages of clown beetles already in the Cretaceous. We also provide a review of all Histeridae fossil species described up to date and test the phylogenetic position of all of them including the newly described ones.