CRETACEOUS INSECTS FROM LABRADOR. 
4. A NEW FAMILY OF BEETLES 
(COLEOPTERA: ARCHOSTEMATA) * 
By A. G. Ponomarenko 
Paleontological Institute 
Academy of Sciences of the USSR 
Through the kindness of Professor F. M. Carpenter, I have been 
able to study some fossil beetles from Cretaceous strata in Northern 
Labrador^ Canada, collected by Professor Erling Dorf of Princeton 
University and contained in the paleontological collections of that 
university. The age of the deposit in which the beetles were found 
is early Cenomanian or very late Albian, as shown by the pollen 
and plant fragments (Dorf, 1967). The collection of beetles consists 
of eight elytra. 
Four of these elytra (nos. 87272, 87274, 87275, 87276) have 
preserved the structure described by Rohdendorf (1961) as a furrow 
(“schiza”). Study of Recent beetles has shown this structure to be 
a process on the underside of the elytron, present only in water 
beetles. Functionally, it is a part of the device for keeping air in 
the subelytral space. Since elytra such as these are very common 
among schizophoroid beetles, which are numerous in Mesozoic de- 
posits of mid-Asia, (Ponomarenko, 1968, 1969), their generic affinities 
cannot be determined without knowledge of additional morphological 
details. 
Two other elytra (nos. 87271 and 87278) have longitudinal 
striae. This sculpturing of elytra is very common and the system- 
atic position of beetles cannot be determined satisfactorily by it. One 
of these elytra., however, on the basis of the shape of the elytron 
with an oblique base, ten rows of large punctures and a complete 
slender line along the sutral margin, bears a strong resemblance to 
the haliplid Peltodytes. 
The two remaining elytra belong to the Archostemata. One speci- 
men (no. 87277) belongs to the family Cupedidae. Although most 
Recent cupedid genera, are present in the New World, this is the 
^Research aided by NSF Grant no. GB7308, F. M. Carpenter, principal 
investigator. 
The previous parts in this series were published in Psyche , vol. 74, pp. 267- 
289, 1967. 
306 
