Baltostigus cf. horribilis Jałoszyński, 2016

Jałoszyński, Paweł & Perkovsky, Evgeny, 2019, The Mastigitae genus † Baltostigus in Upper Eocene Rovno amber (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4661 (3), pp. 594-600 : 598

† Baltostigus cf. horribilis Jałoszyński

( Figs 11–17 )

Material studied. Late Eocene of Europe, Rovno amber: female; inclusion in a large, semi-lentiform piece of darkly colored amber 58 × 25 × 15 mm, collection number K-7896, collected in Klesov (Pugach quarry), Ukraine ( SIZK); “ Baltostigus Rovno 2", sex unknown, inclusion in a large prismatic piece of light yellow amber with a half earthy turbulent, 38 × 23 × 10 mm, collected 10 km north of Voronki village , Vladimirets District, Rovno Region, Ukraine ( NCR) .

Remarks. The specimen K-7896 is poorly visible, embedded in dark amber, but it is clearly a female, judging from the valvifers sticking out of the tip of abdomen. The other beetle (" Baltostigus Rovno 2") is observable only in lateral view, and its sex remains unknown.

These specimens are very similar to the holotype of Baltostigus horribilis (which is of unknown sex). They both differ from the latter in slightly larger bodies, slightly longer elytra in relation to the pronotum, slightly shorter antennae in relation to the body length, and in a slightly shorter scape in relation to the length of the head and in relation to the length of the pronotum. It cannot be excluded that the holotype of Baltostigus horribilis is a male, and the females from Rovno amber are females (certainly the specimen K-7896 is a female) of the same species. This problem will be possible to address properly when more specimens become available, especially specimens that can be unambiguously identified as males and females.

Figures

FIGURES 11–17. Baltostigus cf. horribilis, specimen K-7896 (11, 12) and Rovno 2 (13–17). Laterodorsal and slightly posterior habitus (11), elytra in dorsal view (12), lateral habitus (13, 14), head and prothorax in lateral view (15), elytra in lateral view (16), elytra in laterodorsal view (17).