Priacmopsis Ponomarenko, 1966

Tan, Jingjing & Ren, Dong, 2006, New fossil Priacmini (Insecta: Coleoptera: Archostemata: Cupedidae) from the Jehol Biota of China, Journal of Natural History 40 (47 - 48), pp. 2653-2661 : 2654-2655

Genus Priacmopsis Ponomarenko, 1966

Priacmopsis Ponomarenko, 1966 , Entomo. Oboer. 1:138–143; Ponomarenko, 1969, Tru. Paleontol. Inst. A. N. SSSR 125:70–115; Ponomarenko, 1997, Paleontol. J. 31(4):389– 399 Type species: Priacmopsis adumbrata Ponomarenko, 1966 .

Included species

With the exception of the new species described below, two species were known previously. They are P. adumbrata Ponomarenko, 1966 from the lower Cretaceous of Northeastern Siberia and P. minimus Ponomarenko, 1997 from the lower Cretaceous of Mongolia.

Revised diagnosis

Head with two distinct tubercles, eyes small, antennae filiform, scape thickest, pedicel obviously shorter than third antennomere, mandibles strongly protruding, pronotum nearly square, anterior angles rounded. Elytra with nine or 10 almost complete rows of punctures, dorsal surface convex. First visible abdominal ventrite longer than other ones, femora shorter than tibiae.

Notes

The modified diagnosis is based on the original description of the type species and on the study of the new materials.

Remarks

The new cupedids from the Yixian Formation are here assigned to the tribe Priacmini of the family Cupedidae because they have antennae less than half as long as the entire insect, inter-antennal distance much greater than diameter of the eyes and prosternal process only shallowly extending behind the coxa. Priacmini includes two extinct genera ( Ponomarenko 1969): Cupidium Ponomarenko (from the Late Jurassic of Kazakhastan) and Priacmopsis Ponomarenko (from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia and Siberia), and one extant genus Priacma ( Leconte, 1874) ( Leconte 1861, 1874).

The new fossils can be placed in Priacmopsis by the following features: (1) pedicel shorter than third antennomere, (2) anterior angles of pronotum rounded and (3) femora shorter than tibiae.