Revision of Mesozoic fossils of the helophorid lineage of the superfamily Hydrophiloidea (Coleoptera: Polyphaga)
Abstrakt
A revision of the Mesozoic fossils belonging to the helophorid lineage of the superfamily Hydrophiloidea is performed and an adapted classification is suggested based on the phylogenetic analysis combining modern and fossil taxa of the lineage. Three genera are revealed as basal extinct Mesozoic clades of the helophorid lineage: Hydrophilopsia Ponomarenko, 1987, Laetopsia gen. nov. (adult forms) and Cretotaenia Ponomarenko, 1977 (larval form).
Mesosperchus Ponomarenko, 1977 stat. nov. is resurrected from synonymy with Zetemenos Bode, 1953 and established as a formal subgenus of Helophorus Fabricius, I 775 containing probable stem taxa of that genus. Mesohelophorus Ponomarenko, 1977, stat. nov., is downgraded to a subgenus of Helophorus.
Two new species are described: Helophorus (Mesosperchus) inceptivus sp. nov. (Sharteg, Mongolia, late Jurassic) and H. (M.) yixianus sp. nov. (Yixian Formation, China, Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary). Mesohelophorus elongatus Ponomarenko, 1990, syn. nov., is synonymised with Mesosperchus tarsalis Ponomarenko, 1977.
The latter species and Hydrophilopsia gracilis Prokin, Ren & Fikacek, 2010 are transferred to Helophorus (Mesosperchus), resulting in the following new combinations: Helophorus (Mesosperchus) tarsalis (Ponomarenko, 1977), comb. nov. and H. (M.) gracilis (Prokin, Ren & Fikacek, 2010), comb. nov. Mesohelophorus sibiricus Ponomarenko, 1977 is transferred to Helophorus (Mesohelophorus) and the resulting secondary homonymy with Helophorus sibiricus (Motschulsky, 1860) is removed by proposing a new substitute name Helophorus palaeosibiricus nom. nov. for the former taxon.
Hydrophilopsia baissensis Ponomarenko, 1987, H. bontsaganica Prokin, 2009, H. hydraenoides Prokin, Ren & Fikacek, 2010, H. mongolica Ponomarenko, 1987 and H. shatrovskiyi Prokin, Ren & Fikacek, 2010 are transferred to Laetopsia gen. nov.