First record of the genus Baris Germar , 1817 ( Coleoptera : Curculionidae ) , in Dominican amber

A new weevil species –Baris grossacavisPoinar and Legalov, sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) – is described from Dominican amber. The new species is close to Baris rubripesCasey, 1892, but differs by possessing large punctures over much of its body, including the pronotum; elytral intervals with rows of narrow scales, and narrow elytral intervals. The fossil is the first record of the subfamily Baridinae from any amber source and the first record from the Miocene.

Recent studies have shown that the Dominican amber weevil fauna is quite extensive (Davis and Engel, 2006a, b, c, 2007, 2009;Poinar, 2009;Poinar and Brown, 2011;Poinar et al., 2013;Poinar and Legalov, 2014a, b, c, d, e, f); however no members of the subfamily Baridinae had previously been recovered from this fossil source.
The present study describes the first representative of the subfamily Baridinae from Dominican amber.

Material and methods
The specimen was obtained from an amber mine in the Cordillera Septentrional of the Dominican Republic.Dating of Dominican amber is controversial, with the latest purported age of 20-15 Mya based on Foraminifera (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1996) and the earliest of 45-30 Mya based on coccoliths (Schlee, 1990).In addition, Dominican amber is secondarily deposited in sedimentary rocks, which makes a definite age determination difficult (Poinar and Mastalerz, 2000).A range of ages for Dominican amber is possible as the amber is associated with turbiditic sandstones of the Upper Eocene to Lower Miocene Mamey Group (Draper et al., 1994).Dominican amber was produced by the leguminous tree Hymenaea protera Poinar (Poinar, 1991), and a reconstruction of the Dominican amber forest based on amber fossils indicated that the environment was similar to that of a present-day tropical moist forest (Poinar and Poinar, 1999).

Baris grossacavis sp. nov.
Etymology.The specific epithet is derived from the Latin grossus (large or coarse) and the Latin cavus (hole or hollow), in reference to the large punctures over the body.
Holotype.Female, deposited in the Poinar amber collection (accession # C-155) maintained at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon.
Type locality.Amber mine in the northern portion of the Dominican Republic.
Diagnosis.The new species is close to Baris rubripes Casey, 1892, but differs by possessing larger punctures over the body, some of which occur in coarse short, longitudinal grooves, elytral intervals with rows of narrow scales, and narrower elytral intervals.
Remarks.The strongly ascending mesepimeron, tibiae with large uncus, and eyes widely separated dorsally suggest placement in the subfamily Baridinae.Placement of this species in the tribe Baridini is based on the tarsus, with claws separate at the base and the pygidium exposed beyond the elytra.The new species is placed in the genus Baris based on the narrowly separated front coxae, the prosternum having a slight median longitudinal impression, the rostrum being distinctly separated from the head by a transverse impression, and the body vestiture lacking dense scales and a metallic luster.
Description.Size: length of body (without rostrum), 2.2 mm; length of rostrum, 0.5 mm.Body black, without dense scales and metallic luster.
Head: rostrum quite short, 0.7 times as long as pronotum, 6.0 times longer than wide at apex, 4.2 times longer than wide in middle, 3.2 times longer than wide at base, weakly curved, with coarse transversally rugose punctures, distinctly separated from head by transverse impression; antennal scrobes lateral and directed toward ventral margin of eye; forehead quite wide, flattened, punctured; eyes large, rounded, not protruding from the head contour, widely separated dorsally, with transverse diameter equal to rostrum base width; vertex weakly flattened, coarsely punctured; temples very short; antennae inserted in middle of rostrum, quite wide, almost reaching middle of pronotum; scape elongated, 6.6 times longer than wide; funicle with first to seventh antennomeres quite wide and conical; club compact, 1.7 times longer than wide, barely shorter than funicle.
Pronotum: bell-shaped; 1.4 times longer than wide at apex, 1.0 times longer than wide in middle and at base; disk weakly flattened, weakly narrowed at apex, densely and coarsely punctured; distance between points less than diameter of points; sides with coarse, longitudinal rugose punctures; scutellum trapezoidal, flattened.
Elytra: elongated and weakly convex, 1.7 times longer than width at base and in middle, 3.0 times longer than width at apical fourth, 2.0 times as long as pronotum; greatest width in middle, elytral base 1.2 times as wide as pronotum base width; humeri weakly convex; striae regular, deep; intervals flattened, quite narrow, 1.5 times as wide as striae, with row of points and adjacent scales; apex of elytra rounded.
Thorax: coarsely punctured; prosternum with slight median longitudinal impression; postocular lobes absent; precoxal portion of prosternum elongated, 2.5 times as long as procoxa length; procoxal cavities separated; postcoxal portion of prosternum short, 1.2 times as long as procoxa length; middle coxal cavities quite widely separated; mesepimeron strongly ascending; metathorax 2.0 times as long as metacoxa length; metepisternum quite narrow, 4.6 times longer than wide in middle.
Abdomen: weakly convex ventrally, coarsely punctured, distance between points approximately equal to diameter of points; first and second ventrites elongated, almost equal in length; first ventrite 1.7 times as long as metacoxa length; second ventrite 0.9 times as long as first ventrite; third and fourth ventrites short, equal in length; third ventrite 0.5 times as long as second ventrite; fifth ventrite elongated, 2.2 times as long as fourth ventrite.Pygidium exposed beyond elytra.
Legs: legs long; front and middle coxae spherical; hind coxae transverse; femora weakly clavate, without teeth; trochanters obconical; profemora 5.2 times longer than wide in middle; mesofemora 4.4 times longer than wide; metafemora 3.7 times longer than wide; tibiae slightly curved, with uncus, mucro and two groups of setae; protibiae 4.8 times longer than wide in middle; metatibiae 4.6 times longer than wide in middle; tarsi long; first to third tarsomeres conical; fifth elongated; tarsomeres with pulvilli on underside; claws free, large, without tooth.