First described reed beetle (Chrysomelidae: Donaciinae) from amber: a new member of the littoral community in the Eocene Baltic amber forest

ABSTRACT

Based on a single specimen from Eocene Baltic amber, Donacia (Protodonacia) bienkowskii subgen. et sp. nov. is described and illustrated. The new species is studied and illustrated in detail using X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT). It is the first described species of Donaciinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) from Baltic amber and from fossil resin in general. Ecological groups of beetles that have been associated with aquatic habitats in the Baltic amber forest communities are briefly discussed. The studied specimen represents the first known member of the ecological group ‘phytophilous water beetles’ in this assemblage.

KEYWORDS:

• Donaciini
• donacia
• leaf-beetles
• new taxa
• palaeogene
• fossil resin
• X-ray micro-CT

Acknowledgments

The authors are sincerely grateful to Dr. Andrzej O. Bieńkowski (Moscow, Russia) for constructive advice and valuable comments, to Msc. Kristaps Kairišs (Daugavpils University, Daugavpils, Latvia) for the micro-CT scanning, rendering and reconstruction of 3D model. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and efforts to improve our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2023.2203153

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant (2021-04174 to R.M.).