Phymaphoroides antennatus Motschulsky, 1856

Alekseev, Vitalii I. & Tomaszewska, Wioletta, 2018, New handsome fungus beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinelloidea: Anamorphidae, Endomychidae) from European amber of the Upper Eocene, Palaeontologia Electronica (6 A) 21 (1), pp. 1-23 : 17

Phymaphoroides antennatus Motschulsky, 1856

Figure 6.6 -7

Material examined. One complete specimen with the collection number 1219-3 [ CCHH], Baltic amber, Yantarny , Kaliningrad Region, Russia. Body length of the beetle 3.04 mm. The amber piece is embedded in a block of polyester resin (total measurements are 12 x 10 x 6 mm). Syninclusions absent. The amber piece was subjected to thermal and high-pressure processing in an autoclave. Left and ventral parts of specimen are obscured by a dense milky cover in the surrounding amber .

Note. The important characters are unfortunately not visible or insufficiently visible on the specimen. The re-description and exact subfamilial placement of Phymaphoroides are still impossible based on this specimen. The discernible enlarged antennomere 9 with deep concavity on its inner edge looks like that of the subfamily Danascelinae Tomaszewska, 2000 . In the future, detailed comparison of a better visible Phymaphoroides specimen with the newly described Laima gen. nov. is recommended, due to observed similarities between both studied specimens.

However, without a study of the type specimen of Phymaphoroides antennatus , the proper subfamilal placement of this genus cannot be resolved. And unfortunately the location of the type material described by Motschulsky from Baltic amber in the Menge collection [West-Preussisches Provinzial-Museum Danzig], among which is the holotype of Ph. antennatus , is unknown, precluding a reinvestigation of this fossil. The original description lacks many characters important for comparison ( Shockley and Alekseev, 2014) making subsequent conclusions about Phymaphoroides speculative.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Endomychids from Bitterfeld and Baltic ambers. 1-2, Trochoideus resinatissimus sp. nov. (No. 53-2 [CCHH], holotype), habitus in dorsal view (1), and forebody in ventral view (2). 3-5, Glesirhanis bercioi Shockley and Alekseev, 2014 (No. 1219-2 [CCHH]), habitus in dorsal (3), ventro-lateral (4), and lateral (5) views. 6-7, Phymaphoroides antennatus Motschulsky, 1856 (No. 1219-3 [CCHH]), close-up of antenna (6), and habitus in dorso-lateral view (7).