On the identity of the fossil aquatic beetles from the Tertiary localities in the southern part of the Upper Rhine Graben (Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae, Dytiscidae)
Abstract
The study focuses on the fossil beetles assigned previously to the family Hydrophilidae described from the localities in the southern part of the Upper Rhine Graben: Brunstatt and Kleinkems(both dated ca. to Eocene-Oligocene boundary, 34 Ma). The identity of Escheria convexa Förster, 1891 is fixed by the designation of its neotype, the species is redescribed, illustrated, transferred from the hydrophilid genus Hydrobius Leach, 1815 to the genus Copelatus Erichson, 1832 (Coleoptera: Adephaga: Dytiscidae) and compared with other fossil representatives of Copelatus.
The identity of the remaining three species, Hydrobius crassipunctatus (Förster, 1891), H. dimidiatus (Förster, 1891) and H. punctulatus (Förster, 1891), is briefly evaluated on the basis of the original descriptions and illustrations only, because their types were lost or destroyed; all three species are removed from the fossil record of the Hydrophiloidea and placed into Polyphaga incertae sedis.