New Species of Family Smicripidae (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea) from Baltic Amber
Smicrips fudalai sp. nov. described herein from Late Eocene Rovno amber. It is the first palmetto beetle from Ukraine; extant Smicrips are distributed in New World tropics and subtropics. The new species differs from all extinct ones by narrower head (head width of head in the eye area is not wider than the maximum width of the pronotum), legs slender, tibia not dilated, without spurs, only pygidium after “pygidium” add “exposed”. It is the third European palmetto beetle of Eocene age, but the fossil records from New World, including ones from Dominican amber (extant native species are known from Mexico and Hispaniola) are still unknown. Perhaps the Early Cenozoic Smicripidae of the New World were relateed not to the macrothermal, but to the upper microthermal to lower mesothermal communities. The tarsal formula 5–5–5 is characteristic for both Eocene and Cretaceous members of the family.