Eridanula, Fanti & Damgaard, 2018

Fanti, Fabrizio & Damgaard, Anders Leth, 2018, Fossil soldier beetles from Baltic amber of the Anders Damgaard amber collection (Coleoptera Cantharidae), Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 18 (1), pp. 1-32 : 5

Genus Eridanula n. gen.

Type species. Eridanula susannaebierae n. sp. The genus is at present monotypic.

Etymology. The genus name derives from Eridanos (Greek = Eridanσs; Latin = Eridanus), derived from Ancient Greek “HΡΙΔανός “ “Amber” + the Latin suffix -ula (diminutive) = small. This epithet refers to the name of the major river of Baltica: Fenno-Sarmatia (Eridanos River), which carried and deposed the Baltic amber ( Bijlsma 1981; Overeem et al. 2001; Gibbard & Lewin 2016). Gender: feminine.

Diagnosis. The unequal maxillary palpomeres, with the last segment securiform and the pronotum without modified lateral margins, places this new genus in the subfamily Cantharinae . Eridanula n. gen. is characterised by long elytra covering the abdomen; pronotum slightly longer than wide, with parallel lateral margins and narrower than elytra; head globular, very large, dorsally telescopic and with evident big eyes; claws simple without denticle (with a small denticle in the other related genera) and antennae with 17 articles: the antennomeres III-VIII dilated and slightly saucer-shaped (notably, the antennomere VIII is very saucer-shaped), the antennomere IX subquadrate and the other articles filiform and slightly enlarged (which is unknown in any extant and fossil genera).