Click beetle larvae from Cretaceous Burmese amber represent an ancient Gondwanan lineage

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15310%2F25%3A73634493" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15310/25:73634493 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-80950-w" target="_blank" >https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-80950-w</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80950-w" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41598-024-80950-w</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Click beetle larvae from Cretaceous Burmese amber represent an ancient Gondwanan lineage

Original language description

The click beetles (Elateridae) represent the major and well-known group of the polyphagan superfamily Elateroidea. Despite a relatively rich fossil record of Mesozoic Elateridae, only a few species are described from the Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber. Although Elateridae spend most of their lives as larvae, our knowledge on immature stages of this family is limited, which is especially valid for the fossils. So far, only a single larval click beetle has been reported from Burmese amber. Here, we describe two larval specimens from the same deposit which based on their morphology unambiguously belong to the predominantly Southern Hemisphere subfamily Pityobiinae, being the most similar to the representatives of tribe Tibionemini. However, since the larvae of the closely related bioluminescent Campyloxenini have not yet been described, we place our specimens to Tibionemini only tentatively. One species of Pityobiinae was recently described from Burmese amber based on adults, and we discuss if it can be congeneric with the here-reported larvae. Recent representatives of the Tibionemini + Campyloxenini clade are known from South America and New Zealand, and this group is hypothesized to have a Gondwanan origin. Hence, the newly discovered Burmese amber larvae may further contribute to a recently highly debated hypothesis that biota of the resin-producing forest on the Burma Terrane, which was probably an island drifting northward at the time of amber deposition, had at least partly Gondwanan affinities. The discovery of enigmatic click beetle larvae in the Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber sheds further light on the palaeodiversity and distribution of the relatively species-poor Gondwanan clade of click beetles, which contain a recent bioluminescent lineage, as well as on the taxonomic composition of the extinct Mesozoic ecosystem.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10613 - Zoology

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Scientific Reports

ISSN

2045-2322

e-ISSN

2045-2322

Volume of the periodical

15

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

14

Pages from-to

"1125-1"-"1125-14"

UT code for WoS article

001419228500020

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85214353425