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A new fossil Cerambycid in Dominican Amber (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae)
Abstract and Figures
A new fossil cerambycid from Dominican amber, Linsleyonides bucarensis n. sp. (Cerambycinae, Phoracanthini) is described and compared to extant congeners and related fossil species. The genus Linsleyonides Skiles, 1985 is recorded as fossil and for Hispaniola for the first time.
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A summary is presented of the 63 species of Cerambycidae known from the Bahamas Islands, based mainly on a collection made in 1987 on Andros Island, supplemented by new literature records and material from other islands and collections. The Andros Island collection represented nearly 50% (31 spp.) of the species known from the Bahamas, and increased the number of species known from Andros by over 70% (16 spp.). New records are also given for Eleuthera Island, Great Exuma, Man-o-war Cay, Crooked Islands, New Providence, San Salvador, Abaco, Booby Cay, South Bimini, Long Islands, Grand Bahama, Mayaguana, Ragged Islands, Rum Cay and Nurse Cay. Six species are new to the Bahamas and one species is a new record for the Caribbean region. Sixteen endemic species are present. Log species-log area relationships for the islands form a significant regression line as predicted by the equilibrium theory of island biogeography. Comparison of the distributions of Bahamian tree species and cerambycids is significant. It is likely that these phytophagous beetles followed the same dispersal pattern as trees. Since the Bahamas were entirely submerged in the Pliocene, the Bahamian cerambycid fauna (and all other terrestrial biotas) is predominantly the result of late Pleistocene and Recent Overwater dispersal from Cuba and secondarily from Hispaniola, and Florida.
This paper* presents a series of detailed paleogeographical analyses of the Caribbean region, beginning with the opening of the Caribbean basin in the Middle Jurassic and running to the end of the Middle Miocene. Three intervals within the Cenozoic are given special treatment: Eocene-Oligocene transition (35-33 Ma), Late Oligocene (27-25 Ma), and early Middle Miocene (16-14 Ma). While land mammals and other terrestrial vertebrates may have occupied landmasses in the Caribbean basin at any time, according to the interpretation presented here the existing Greater Antillean islands, as islands, are no older than Middle Eocene. Earlier islands must have existed, but it is not likely that they remained as such (i.e., as subaerial entities) due to repeated transgressions, subsidence, and (not incidentally) the K/T bolide impact and associated mega-tsunamis. Accordingly, we infer that the on-island lineages forming the existing (i.e., Quaternary) Antillean fauna must all be younger than Middle Eocene. The fossil record, although still very poor, is consistent with the observation that most land mammal lineages entered the Greater Antilles around the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Western Laurasia (North America) and western Gondwana (South America) were physically connected as continental areas until the mid-Jurassic, ca. 170 Ma. Terrestrial connections between these continental areas since then can only have occurred via landbridges. In the Cretaceous, three major uplift events, recorded as regional unconformities, may have produced intercontinental landbridges involving the Cretaceous Antillean island arc. The Late Campanian/Early Maastrichtian uplift event is the one most likely to have resulted in a landbridge, as it would have been coeval with uplift of the dying Cretaceous arc. However, evidence is too limited for any certainty on this point. The existing landbridge (Panamanian isthmus) was completed in the Pliocene; evidence for a precursor bridge late in the Middle Miocene is ambiguous. We marshal extensive geological evidence to show that, during the Eocene-Oligocene transition, the developing northern Greater Antilles and northwestern South America were briefly connected by a "landspan" (i.e., a subaerial connection between a continent and one or more off-shelf islands) centered on the emergent Aves Ridge. This structure (Greater Antilles + Aves Ridge) is dubbed GAARlandia. The massive uplift event that apparently permitted these connections was spent by 32 Ma; a general subsidence followed, ending the GAARlandia landspan phase. Thereafter, Caribbean neotectonism resulted in the subdivision of existing land areas. The GAARlandia hypothesis has great significance for understanding the history of the Antillean biota. Typically, the historical biogeography of the Greater Antilles is discussed in terms of whether the fauna was largely shaped by strict dispersal or strict continent-island vicariance. The GAARlandia hypothesis involves elements of both. Continent-island vicariance sensu Rosen appears to be excludable for any time period since the mid-Jurassic. Even if vicariance occurred at that time, its relevance for understanding the origin of the modern Antillean biota is minimal. Hedges and co-workers have strongly espoused over-water dispersal as the major and perhaps only method of vertebrate faunal formation in the Caribbean region. However, surface-current dispersal of propagules is inadequate as an explanation of observed distribution patterns of terrestrial faunas in the Greater Antilles. Even though there is a general tendency for Caribbean surface currents to flow northward with respect to the South American coastline, experimental evidence indicates that the final depositional sites of passively floating objects is highly unpredictable. Crucially, prior to the Pliocene, regional paleoceanography was such that current-flow patterns from major rivers would have delivered South American waifs to the Central American coast, not to the Greater or Lesser Antilles. Since at least three (capromyid rodents, pitheciine primates, and megalonychid sloths) and possibly four (nesophontid insectivores) lineages of Antillean mammals were already on one or more of the Greater Antilles by the Early Miocene, Hedges' inference as to the primacy of over-water dispersal appears to be at odds with the facts. By contrast, the landspan model is consistent with most aspects of Antillean land-mammal biogeography as currently known; whether it is consistent with the biogeography of other groups remains to be seen.
The age and depositional history of Dominican amber-bearing deposits have not been well constrained. Resinites of different
ages exist in Hispaniola, but all of the main amberiferous deposits in the Dominican Republic (including those famous for
yielding biological inclusions) were formed in a single sedimentary basin during the late Early Miocene through early Middle
Miocene (15 to 20 million years ago), according to available biostratigraphic and paleogeographic data. There is little evidence
for extensive reworking or redeposition, in either time or space. The brevity of the depositional interval (less than 5 million
years) provides a temporal benchmark that can be used to calibrate rates of molecular evolution in amber taxa.
A new fossil species, Anelaphus velteni n. sp. (Dominican amber, Miocene), is described and confronted with extant and fossil congeners.
Observations about new specimens of Trichosieversia europaea (Vitali, 2004) (Baltic amber), Plectromerus tertiarius Vitali, 2004 (Dominican amber) and Iresioides ferox Thomson, 1857 (Malagasy copal) are added.
Five new synonyms and ten new combinations are proposed for taxa in Elaphidiini. Brief characterizations of the genera involved (Anelaphus Linsley, Anopliomorpha Linsley, Elaphidion Audinet-Serville, Parelaphidion Skiles, Stizocera Audinet-Serville, Trichophoroides Linsley, Xeranoplium Linsley) are included to provide bases for these taxonomic decisions. The following new combinations are proposed, all transferred from Elaphidion: Anelaphus cinnabarinum (Fisher); Anelaphus crispulum (Fisher); Anelaphus mutatum (Gahan); Anelaphus fasciatum (Fisher); Anelaphus hispaniolae (Fisher); Anopliomorpha antillarum (Fisher); Trichophoroides dozieri (Fisher); Trichophoroides signaticolle (Chevrolat); Trichophoroides variolosum (Fisher); Xeranoplium gracilis (Fisher). The following new synonymies are proposed: Elaphidion truncatipenne Fisher with Anelaphus fasciatum (Fisher); Elaphidion monticola Fisher and Anopliomorpha xylebora Cazier & Lacey with Anopliomorpha antillarum (Fisher); Elaphidion jamaicensis Fisher with Elaphidion tuberculicolle Fisher; Stizocera punctiventris (Cazier & Lacey) with Stizocera insulana (Gahan). A checklist of the 55 species of Elaphidion is provided.
A new fossil species, Elaphidion inclusum n. sp. (Elaphidiini), included in Dominican amber (Early Miocene) is described.
The genus Pterolophosoma Vitali (Dominican amber, Early Miocene) is transferred from Lamiinae incertae sedis to the tribe Desmiphorini.
The systematic position of Paleohemilophus dominicanus Martins & Galileo (Dominican amber, Early Miocene) is analysed, stating its very close relationship with the North American genus Hemierana Aurivillius.
Paleohemilophus a new genus of fossil Cerambycidae from Hispaniola Island (Coleoptera)
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- M H M Galileo
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Nearns, E.H. & Branham, M.A., 2005. -A new species of Plectromerus Haldeman
(Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) from Dominican amber with notes on the fossil Plectromerus
tertiarius Vitali, Zootaxa, 1088:17-24.
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Vitali, F., 2004. -Plectromerus tertiarius new fossil species from Hispaniola (Coleoptera,
Cerambycidae, Cerambycinae). Lambillionea, CIV(3):453-458.
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Dominican amber (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae). Lambillionea, CX(3):340-343.
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Vitali, F., 2015. -The first fossil of Ibidionini Thomson, 1860 from Dominican amber, with
taxonomic notes on the tribe (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae). Lambillionea CXV(1):7-11.