Revisiting the morphology and systematic placement of the enigmatic Cretaceous ommatid beetle Bukhkalius lindae (Coleoptera: Archostemata: Ommatidae)
Author
Li, Yan-Da
Author
Huang, Di-Ying
Author
Cai, Chen-Yang
text
Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia
2021
2021-02-18
61
1
6
http://dx.doi.org/10.11606/1807-0205/2021.61.28
journal article
10.11606/1807-0205/2021.61.28
1807-0205
5008146
Genus
Bukhkalius
Kirejtshuk & Jarzembowski, 2020
Type
species:
Tetraphalerus lindae
Jarzembowski,
Wang & Zheng, 2017
.
Revised diagnosis:
Body elongate. Head moderately elongate; temples short; antennal grooves short, only reaching anterior margin of eyes; antennae short, subfiliform; separate mentum present. Pronotal disc without protuberances or ridges; propleura not reaching anterior prothoracic margin; procoxae contiguous. Elytra with indistinct longitudinal ridges (primary veins); lateral edge of elytra with double rows of teeth. Abdominal ventrites abutting.
Bukhkalius
differs from
Tetraphalerus
in head only moderately elongate, antennal grooves incomplete, and mushroom-shaped micro-tubercles absent.
Bukhkalius
differs from the remaining genera in
Ommatidae
in the combination of antennal grooves present (though incomplete), separate mentum present, and propleura not reaching anterior prothoracic margin.
Remarks:
The diagnosis provided in
Kirejtshuk(2020)
was insufficient, which cannot really differentiate
Bukhkalius
from
Omma
and
Omma
-like genera. For example, he claimed that “this new genus [
Bukhkalius
] differs from the genera with subglobous prothorax (
Cionocoleus, Cionocups
,
Omma, Polyakius
and
Rhopalomma
) in the clear ‘neck’ of the head”. However, neck is clearly present in both extant (Escalona
et al.,
2020) and fossil ommatines. The neck in some fossil
Omma
(
Figs. 4B, C
) could be even narrower than that of
Bukhkalius
.