From Abundance to Extinction: Evolutionary History of European Aedemonini (Curculionidae) with a Description of the First Representative from Rovno Amber

Abstract

Fossil weevils of the subfamily Molytinae are currently represented by 103 species in 42 genera from 14 tribes. Fossil records of the tribe Aedemonini are known from the Eocene of Europe. This tribe makes up 22% of the London Clay weevil specimens identified to the genus level and 16% of the Curculionidae genera. At present, the distribution of this tribe is mainly paleotropical, but it was very prominent in the paratropical biota of the London Clay in the early Eocene, and it was still represented in the biota of the amber forests of Europe that retained some tropical elements in the Priabonian. A new species, Electrorhinus vlaskini n. sp., from the tribe Aedemonini of the subfamily Molytinae, is described from Rovno amber. It differs from E. friedhelmi in the smaller body size, finely faceted eyes, a coarser rugose pronotum, and sparser scales on the body. A list of the fossil Molytinae is compiled. This is the first record of a weevil of the subfamily Molytinae in Rovno amber, and the second finding of a representative of the genus Electrorhinus in the late Eocene and the third record of a species of Aedemonini preserved as a fossil. A key to European species of Molytinae with a rostral channel from Europe is given.