Lepicerus is a genus of myxophagan beetles containing three described species in the family Lepiceridae; it is the only extant genus in the family, with another genus, Lepiceratus only known from fossils.[1][2] Extant species occur in the Neotropics, from Mexico south to Venezuela and Ecuador. Fossils referrable to the genus are known from the early Late Cretaceous of Southeast Asia.

Lepicerus
Temporal range: Cenomanian–Recent
Lepicerus inaequalis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Myxophaga
Superfamily: Lepiceroidea
Hinton, 1936
Family: Lepiceridae
Hinton, 1936
Genus: Lepicerus
Motschulsky, 1855
Synonyms
Family synonymy
  • Cyathoceridae Sharp, 1882
  • Haplochelidae Kirejtshuk and Poinar, 2006
Genus synonymy
  • Cyathocerus Sharp, 1882
  • Haplochelus Kirejtshuk and Poinar, 2006
  • Lepiceroides Kirejtshuk and Poinar, 2013
  • Lepichelus Kirejtshuk and Poinar, 2017

Species

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Three additional species are known from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) as inclusions in Burmese amber from Myanmar.

Extinct Lepiceridae genera

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  • Lepiceratus Jałoszyński et al. 2020[2] Cenomanian, Burmese amber, Myanmar

References

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  1. ^ Ge, S.-Q.; Friedrich, F. & Beutel, R. G. (2010). "On the systematic position and taxonomic rank of the extinct myxophagan †Haplochelus (Coleoptera)". Insect Systematics & Evolution. 41 (4): 329–338. doi:10.1163/187631210X537385
  2. ^ a b Jałoszyński, Paweł; Luo, Xiao-Zhu; Hammel, Jörg U.; Yamamoto, Shûhei & Beutel, Rolf G. (2020). "The mid-Cretaceous †Lepiceratus gen. nov. and the evolution of the relict beetle family Lepiceridae (Insecta: Coleoptera: Myxophaga)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (13). doi:10.1080/14772019.2020.1747561
  3. ^ Kirejtshuk, A.G.; Poinar, G. Jr. (2006). "Haplochelidae, a new family of Cretaceous beetles (Coleoptera: Myxophaga) from Burmese amber". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 108: 155–164.
  4. ^ Jałoszyński, Paweł; Yamamoto, Shûhei; Takahashi, Yui (October 2017). "Discovery of a new Mesozoic species of the ancient genus Lepicerus (Coleoptera: Myxophaga: Lepiceridae), with implications for the systematic placement of all previously described extinct 'lepiceroids'". Cretaceous Research. 78: 95–102. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2017.06.001.
  5. ^ A. G. Kirejtshuk and G. Poinar. 2013. On the systematic position of the genera Lepiceroides gen. n. and Haplochelus, with notes on the taxonomy and phylogeny of the Myxophaga (Coleoptera). In D. Azar, M. Engel, E. Jarzembowski, L. Krogmann, A. Nel, J. Santiago-Blay (eds.), Insect Evolution in an Ambiferous and Stone Alphabet 55-69
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