Cretaceous origin of the unique prey-capture apparatus in mega-diverse genus: stem lineage of Steninae rove beetles discovered in Burmese amber.

ABSTRACT: Stenus is the largest genus of rove beetles and the second largest among animals. Its evolutionary success was associated with the adhesive labial prey-capture apparatus, a unique apomorphy of that genus. Definite Stenus with prey-capture apparatus are known from the Cenozoic fossils, while the age and early evolution of Steninae was hardly ever hypothesized. Our study of several Cretaceous Burmese amber inclusions revealed a stem lineage of Steninae that possibly possesses the Stenus-like prey-capture apparatus. Phylogenetic analysis of extinct and extant taxa of Steninae and putatively allied subfamilies of Staphylinidae with parsimony and Bayesian approaches resolved the Burmese amber lineage as a member of Steninae. It justified the description of a new extinct stenine genus Festenus w

SUBMITTER: Zyla D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5387741 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature