Mimoplatycis alekseevi Kazantsev 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Kazantsev, S. V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cantharidae
Mimoplatycis
Mimoplatycis alekseevi

description: † Mimoplatycis alekseevi Kazantsev sp. nov.
(Figs 2, 4B)
Material: Holotype, ♂, specimen No. AWI-028, East Baltic amber, Late Eocene, « Mimoplatycis notha sp.n., Kazantsev det. 2013» (white label), « Paratype » (red label) (CVIA).
Description. Male. Dark brown to black. Head transverse, slightly wider than anterior pronotal margin. Eye small, interocular distance ca. 2 times greater than eye diameter. Maxillary palps slender, relatively long, noticeably extending beyond head, ultimate palpomere oval, ca. 1.5 times longer than wide.Antennae slender, filiform, attaining to elytral half, scapus only slightly wider than pedicel; antennomere 3 ca. 1.2 times longer than antennomere 2 and ca. 1.2 times shorter than antennomere 4; length ratio of antennomeres 4: 2.5: 3.3: 3.8: 3.4: 3.7: 3.6: 3.7: 3.2: 3.2: 3.7; pubescence moderately dense, erect (Fig. 2).
Pronotum transverse, ca 1.4 times longer than wide, with strongly concave sides, slightly convex anterior and almost straight posterior margins, with pronounced anterior and long acute posterior angles. Scutellum triangular, rounded at apex (Figs 2A, 4B).
Elytra long, ca. 3.3 times longer than wide at humeri, parallel-sided, relatively sparsely and prominently punctured, pubescence decumbent (Fig. 2).
Legs long and slender; femurs and tibiae narrow, straight, hind tibia ca 1.15 times longer than hind femur; length ratio of hind tarsomeres 2.8: 1.5: 1.1: 0.4: 1 (Fig. 2).
Ultimate ventrite elongate, rounded distally; penultimate ventrite with convex distal margin (Fig. 2B).
Aedeagus subquadrate; dorsal plate with broad median semi-circular incision; parameres as long as dorsal plate (Fig. 2).
Length (from anterior head margin to elytral apices): 2.9 mm. Width (at elytral humeri): 0.7 mm.
Female. Unknown.
Diagnosis. Mimoplatycis alekseevi sp. nov., resembling in the narrow body M. bicolor Fanti et Vitali, 2017, may be distinguished from it by the acute and noticeably produced laterally posterior pronotum angles and relatively wide median areole between the front pronotal carinae (Figs 2A, 4B), vs the rounded and not produced laterally posterior pronotum angles and narrow median areole between the front pronotal carinae in M. bicolor. Although the authors of the latter taxon also describe its bicolorous elytra (Fanti & Vitali, 2017), the photos they provide suggest the elytra are more likely uniformly dark brown (or reddish brown, in passing light), with the basal triangle looking darker, as the thorax does not allow light to pass through, and their apices also darker due to the apical bulges.
Etymology. The new species is named after Dr. Vitalii Alekseev (Kaliningrad Regional Amber Museum), an expert in amber insect inclusions.
Distribution. Priabonian East Baltic amber.
description: Published as part of Kazantsev, S. V., 2025, A review of the fossil genus Mimoplatycis Kazantsev, 2013 (Coleoptera: Cantharidae: Malthininae), pp. 267-274 in Zootaxa 5618 (2) on pages 268-270, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5618.2.5, http://zenodo.org/record/15217816