The first extinct genus of Alleculinae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) common for Baltic and Rovno ambers

The new fossil alleculine genus Glabracula gen. nov. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Alleculinae) is described from Baltic amber of the Sambian peninsula. The new taxon of generic rank is proposed to accommodate two Eocene species, G. groehni sp. nov. as the type species and G. campbelli (Nabozhenko & Perkovsky, 2023) comb. nov. described from Rovno amber and herein transferred from Oracula Novák, 2019a. The described extinct genus, the first extinct tenebrionid genus common for Baltic and Rovno ambers, resembles extant Asticostena Fairmaire, 1897, and Oracula, from which it differs in the glabrous dorsal side of body, strongly enlarged protarsomeres 1–4, structure and number of teeth on male protarsal claws and other characters. Adult representatives of Glabracula gen. nov. were possibly actively climbing arboreal inhabitants of primaeval forests. The extinct beetles possessed morphological adaptations similar to those in some extant tropical Alleculina, which presumable allowed them to move on the upper and lower surfaces of leaves, branches and trunks at any angle.