Sanaungulus ruicheni (Hsiao & Huang, 2018) n. comb. with the differential diagnosis of genera Sanaungulus Fanti, Damgaard & Ellenberger, 2018 and Ornatomalthinus Poinar & Fanti, 2016
Author
Fanti, Fabrizio
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-11-08
4514
3
449
450
journal article
27989
10.11646/zootaxa.4514.3.11
f082b37e-ef19-4649-9520-b4c644e5425e
1175-5326
2608838
7C409027-3663-4083-8ACC-ADA2D9E4F96D
Sanaungulus ruicheni
(
Hsiao & Huang, 2018
)
n. comb.
(
Cantharidae
Cantharinae
Cantharini
)
Ornatomalthinus ruicheni
Hsiao & Huang, 2018
(
Cantharidae
Silinae
Silini
)
The species delimitation is often very problematic when limited information on different semaphoronts is available in highly sexually dimorphic groups. This is also reflected in the taxonomy of the
Cantharidae
, even at the subfamily or tribe level. One example is the genus
Tytthonyx
LeConte, 1851
which is placed in the subfamily
Silinae
as
incertae sedis
showing intermediate characters with the subfamily
Malthininae
Kiesenwetter, 1852
(
Brancucci, 1980
)
.
Ornatomalthinus
and
Sanaungulus
show a remarkably different head shape. The possibility that it is due to feed on nectar and pollen (
Hsiao & Huang, 2018
) is currently unsupported by clear evidence since genera and species (even in soldier beetles) feeding on pollen commonly tend to have a stretched rostrum not a modified posterior part of the cranium. Moreover, soldier beetles tend to be predators and are only occasional nectarivorous, the latter strategy present due to the development of the angiosperms in the Cretaceous. Therefore, the difference of the shape of the head, in contrast to what
Hsiao & Huang (2018)
claimed, confirm that the two genera represent independent lineages deserving the genus rank.
Ornatomalthinus ruicheni
Hsiao & Huang, 2018
is transferred to
Sanaungulus
. As a result, the fossil genus
Ornatomalthinus
remains monotypic with the only
type
species
O. elvirae
Poinar & Fanti, 2016
and three species are now placed in the fossil genus
Sanaungulus
:
S. curtipennis
Fanti, Damgaard & Ellenberger, 2018
,
S. ghitaenoerbyae
Fanti, Damgaard & Ellenberger, 2018
(
Poinar & Fanti, 2016
;
Fanti
et al.
, 2018
) and
Sanaungulus ruicheni
. The genera
Ornatomalthinus
and
Sanaungulus
belong to the subfamily
Cantharinae
Imhoff, 1856
and not to the subfamily
Silinae
Mulsant, 1862
.