X-ray microscopy reveals endophallic structures in a new species of the ground beetle genus Trechus Clairville, 1806 from Baltic amber (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Trechini)

By

Schmidt, Joachim
Belousov, Igor
Michalik, Peter, 1976-

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2016

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

614

Pages

113-127

Subjects

3-D reconstruction , Eocene , micro-CT

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.614.9283

 

Abstract

The third fossil species of the genus Trechus Clairville, 1806 is described from Baltic amber: T. exhibitorius sp. n. Details of external and internal morphology were analysed using X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and important diagnostic features of the internal male genital sac (endophallus) are described in detail for the first time in a fossil ground beetle. Based on these data, we could assign T. exhibitorius sp. n. to Trechus sensu stricto and this new fossil species seems to represent a basal branch of a lineage comprising species diverse groups of extant Trechus mainly distributed in the Caucasus and Anatolia. Thus, our results support previous studies suggesting that Trechus is a phylogenetically old lineage already present in the Eocene with numerous species.