The Weevil Fauna Preserved in Burmese Amber—Snapshot of a Unique, Extinct Lineage (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea)

Only a few weevils have been described from Burmese amber, and although most have been misclassified, they show unusual and specialised characters unknown in extant weevils. In this paper, we present the results of a study of a much larger and more diverse selection of Burmese amber weevils. We prep...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDiversity (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 1
Main Authors Clarke, Dave, Limaye, Ajay, McKenna, Duane, Oberprieler, Rolf
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.01.2019
Subjects
amber preparation
angiosperm associations
Angiosperms
Antennae
Arthropods
Classification
Computed tomography
Cretaceous
CT scanning
Curculionoidea
Endangered & extinct species
Extinction
Fauna
Flowers
Fossils
Light microscopy
Mesophyletidae
Morphology
New genera
New species
Optical microscopy
Phylogenetics
Rostrum
Seeds
Taxa
Taxonomy
Visibility
Brazil
Myanmar (Burma)
United States > US
Botswana
New Jersey
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Summary:Only a few weevils have been described from Burmese amber, and although most have been misclassified, they show unusual and specialised characters unknown in extant weevils. In this paper, we present the results of a study of a much larger and more diverse selection of Burmese amber weevils. We prepared all amber blocks to maximise visibility of structures and examined these with high-magnification light microscopy as well as CT scanning (selected specimens). We redescribe most previously described taxa and describe 52 new species in 26 new genera, accompanied by photographs. We compare critical characters of these weevils with those of extant taxa and outline the effects of distortion on their preservation and interpretation. We conclude that only two weevil families are thus far represented in Burmese amber, Nemonychidae and a newly recognised family, Mesophyletidae, which appears closely related to Attelabidae but cannot be accommodated in this family. The geniculate antennae and long rostrum with exodont mandibles of most Mesophyletidae indicate that they were highly specialised phytophages of early angiosperms preserved in the amber, likely ovipositing in flowers or seeds. This weevil fauna appears to represent an extinct mid-Cretaceous ecosystem and fills a critical gap in the fossil record of weevils.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d11010001