ASIDA GROEHNI SP NOV., THE FIRST AND THE OLDEST FOSSIL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SUBFAMILY PIMELIINAE FROM EOCENE BALTIC AMBER (COLEOPTERA: TENEBRIONIDAE: ASIDINI)

Asida groehni sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae, Asidini) is described from Eocene Baltic amber from the Kaliningrad Region (Russia). This is the first fossil species belonging to the genus Asida Latreille, 1802 and only the eighth described darkling beetle species from Eocene Baltic amber. This species helps support the hypothesis that the climate in this part of Europe was warmer during Eocene, as no Asida species are currently present in the Baltic area due to not appropriate climate. This new fossil species is similar to modern Asida species in the subgenus Planasida Escalera, 1907, which occur in the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, but it differs from all known Asida in pronotal sculpturing and pilosity, and by its yellow brown shiny cuticle, well visible on the pronotal disc. Despite species-level differences, the new extinct species appears to fit easily within the extant genus Asida.