Precaspian Institute of Biological Resources of the Daghestan Federal Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, M. Gadzhiev Str. 45, Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, 367000, Russia. Dagestan State University, 43a M. Gadzhiev Str., Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, 367000, Russia.
Institute of Life Sciences and Technology, Daugavpils University, Vienbas iela 13, Daugavpils, LV-5401, Latvia. .
Zootaxa. 2021 Dec 16;5082(2):177-184. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5082.2.7.
A new species of comb-clawed beetles of the genus Asiomira Dubrovina, 1973 (A. dubrovinae sp. n.) is described from the Eocene Baltic amber. This newly descovered fossil species displays typical generic characters and is the most similar to the extant Asiomira ophtalmica (Seidlitz, 1896). Both species share a similar shape of the pronotum and the flattened posterior angles of the pronotal disc. Asiomira dubrovinae sp. n. can be distinguished from A. ophtalmica by the smaller body size (4.8 mm in contrast to 68.12 mm), more serrate antennomeres, and finer and sparser pronotal punctation. Extant species of the genus are distributed in the arid landscapes of Central Asia with the highest diversity occurring in Tajikistan. Therefore the discovery of a new fossil species from Eocene Baltic amber suggests that Asiomira could have a wider range, and the modern distribution of this group is the result of a later secondary expansion of the ancestral representatives that survived in mid-mountain areas with arboreal and shrub vegetation. Relevant corrections to the distribution of extant species, Asiomira ophtalmica (Seidlitz, 1896) and Asiomira firjusana (Dubrovina, 1973), are given.
一种新的梳爪甲虫属(Asiomira Dubrovina,1973)物种(A. dubrovinae sp. n.)被描述为来自始新世波罗的海琥珀。这种新发现的化石物种具有典型的属特征,与现存的 Asiomira ophtalmica(Seidlitz,1896)最为相似。这两个物种具有相似的前胸形状和扁平的前胸盘后角。与 A. ophtalmica 相比,A. dubrovinae sp. n. 的体型更小(4.8 毫米对 68.12 毫米)、触角节更锯齿状、前胸点状刻纹更细更稀疏。该属现存物种分布于中亚干旱景观中,塔吉克斯坦的多样性最高。因此,从始新世波罗的海琥珀中发现的新化石物种表明 Asiomira 的分布范围可能更广,而该类群的现代分布是在山区具有树木和灌木植被的祖先代表幸存下来的后期二次扩张的结果。对现存物种的分布进行了相关修正,即 Asiomira ophtalmica(Seidlitz,1896)和 Asiomira firjusana(Dubrovina,1973)。