The first Phengodidae fossil (Coleoptera: Elateroidea): Cretocydistus wittmeri gen. et sp. nov. from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber

Abstract

Elateroidea superfamily holds a huge diversity, morphological variation and a myriad of habitat specializations. The presence of bioluminescence and paedomorphosis renders the group as an interesting model for several studies. The “lampyroid” clade manifests both features, in a variety of light displays and body-forms, but the small fossil records hampers any advance in understanding the origin of these characteristics, as well as the biogeographic history of the group. We present here the description of a new fossil species, Cretocydistus wittmeri gen. et sp. nov. from the mid-Cretaceous of northern Myanmar, the first fossil of the family Phengodidae. We putatively place the genus in the subfamily Cydistinae, which extant species are distributed in Asia Minor, the Levant, and Iran. We also discuss how the discovery of this fossil taxa influences the study of the family and the “lampyroid” clade evolutionary history and biogeography.