The soldier beetles (Cantharidae) are relatively soft-bodied, straight-sided beetles. They are cosmopolitan in distribution. One of the first described species has a color pattern reminiscent of the red coats of early British soldiers, hence the common name. They are also known commonly as leatherwings because of their soft elytra.
Pauropoda is a class of small, pale, millipede-like arthropods in the subphylum Myriapoda. More than 900 species in twelve families are found worldwide, living in soil and leaf mold. Pauropods look like centipedes or millipedes and may be a sister group of the latter, but a close relationship with Symphyla has also been posited. The name Pauropoda derives from the Greek pauros and pous or podus, because most species in this class have only nine pairs of legs as adults, a smaller number than those found among adults in any other class of myriapods.
Symphylans, also known as garden centipedes or pseudocentipedes, are soil-dwelling arthropods of the class Symphyla in the subphylum Myriapoda. Symphylans resemble centipedes, but are very small, non-venomous, and only distantly related to both centipedes and millipedes. More than 200 species are known worldwide.
Pauropodidae is the most diverse family of pauropods, containing 27 genera and more than 800 species, as well as the only known fossil pauropod, Eopauropus. This family has a subcosmopolitan distribution. Pauropods in this family are generally whitish and feature a sternal antennal branch with one seta and one globulus, setae on the head and tergites that are usually tapering or cylindrical, and a single anal plate. Like most adult pauropods in the order Tetramerocerata, most adults in this family have 9 pairs of legs, but adults in one genus, Cauvetauropus, have only 8 pairs of legs, and female adults in another genus, Decapauropus, have either 9 or 10 pairs of legs. The first species found to include pauropods with more than 9 pairs of legs was D. cuenoti, first described with 10 pairs in 1931.
Hersiliidae is a tropical and subtropical family of spiders first described by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869, which are commonly known as tree trunk spiders. They have two prominent spinnerets that are almost as long as their abdomen, earning them another nickname, the "two-tailed spiders". They range in size from 10 to 18 mm long. Rather than using a web that captures prey directly, they lay a light coating of threads over an area of tree bark and wait for an insect to stray onto the patch. When this happens, they encircle their spinnerets around their prey while casting silk on it. When the insect is immobilized, they can bite it through the shroud.
The family Oedemeridae is a cosmopolitan group of beetles commonly known as false blister beetles, though some recent authors have coined the name pollen-feeding beetles. There are some 100 genera and 1,500 species in the family, mostly associated with rotting wood as larvae, though adults are quite common on flowers. The family was erected by Pierre André Latreille in 1810.
Archaeidae, also known as assassin spiders and pelican spiders, is a spider family with about ninety described species in five genera. It contains small spiders, ranging from 2 to 8 millimetres long, that prey exclusively on other spiders. They are unusual in that they have "necks", ranging from long and slender to short and thick. The name "pelican spider" refers to these elongated jaws and necks used to catch their prey. Living species of Archaeidae occur in South Africa, Madagascar and Australia, with the sister family Mecysmaucheniidae occurring in southern South America and New Zealand.
Glomerida is an order of pill-millipedes found primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. Also known as northern pill millipedes, they superficially resemble pill-bugs or woodlice, and can enroll into a protective ball. They have twelve body segments, 17 to 19 pairs of legs, and males have enlarged rear legs involved in mating. The order includes about 30 genera and at least 280 species, including Glomeris marginata, the common European pill-millipede. The order contains members in Europe, South-east Asia and the Americas from California to Guatemala. Although historically considered closely related with the similar sphaerotheriidans that also enroll, some DNA evidence suggest they may be more closely related to glomeridesmidans, a poorly known order that does not enroll.
The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 100,000 tons of amber. Today, more than 90% of the world's amber comes from Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. It is a major source of income for the region; the local Kaliningrad Amber Combine extracted 250 tonnes of it in 2014 and 400 tonnes in 2015.
Peripatidae is a family of velvet worms. The oldest putative representatives of the family herald from Burmese amber dated to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago, with representatives from Dominican and Baltic amber attesting to a broader distribution in the Palaeogene / Neogene; molecular variability suggests that the family's crown group may have arisen in the early Mesozoic.
Elephantomyia (Elephantomyia) baltica is an extinct species of crane fly in the family Limoniidae. The species is solely known from the Middle Eocene Baltic amber deposits in the Baltic Sea region of Europe. The species is one of six described from Baltic amber.
Tetramerocerata is an order of pauropods containing 11 families and more than 900 species. This order was created in 1950 to distinguish these pauropods from those in the newly discovered genus Millotauropus, which was found to have such distinctive features as to warrant placement in a separate order (Hexamerocerata) created to contain that genus. The order Tetramerocerata includes the vast majority of pauropod species, as there are only eight species in the order Hexamerocerata, which remains the only other order in the class Pauropoda.
Eopauropus balticus is a prehistoric pauropod known from mid-Eocene Baltic amber. It is the only known pauropod in the fossil record. As pauropods are normally soil-dwelling, their presence in amber is unusual, and they are the rarest known animals in Baltic amber.
Scolopendrellidae is a family of symphylans in the class Symphyla. There are about 9 genera and at least 100 described species in Scolopendrellidae.
Scutigerella immaculata, commonly known as the garden symphylan or glasshouse symphylid, is a species of myriapod in the family Scutigerellidae. It may have originated in Europe but now has a cosmopolitan distribution and can be a pest of crops.
The Prussian Formation, previously known as the Amber Formation, is a geologic formation in Prussia, today mostly Kaliningrad Oblast that dates to the Eocene. It holds 90% of the world's amber supply and Baltic amber is found exclusively in the Prussian Formation.
This list of 2023 in paleoentomology records new fossil insect taxa that are to be described during the year, as well as documents significant paleoentomology discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
Scutigerella is a genus of symphylans with sub-cosmopolitan distribution. It is the second-largest clade in the family Scutigerellidae, comprising 38 species.
Zygopauropus is a monotypic genus of pauropod in the family Brachypauropodidae. The only species in this genus is Zygopauropus hesperius, first described by J.W. MacSwain and U.N. Lanham of the University of California at Berkeley in 1948. This genus is notable as one of only four genera of pauropods in which adults have only eight pairs of legs rather than the nine leg pairs usually found in adults in the order Tetramerocerata. Before the discovery of Z. hesperius, adult pauropods were thought to have only nine or (rarely) ten pairs of legs.
Decapauropus is a large genus of pauropods in the family Pauropodidae that includes more than 300 species. This genus was originally described by Paul Remy in 1931 to contain the newly discovered type species Decapauropus cuenoti. As the name of this genus suggests, this genus is notable for including females with ten pairs of legs instead of the nine leg pairs usually found in adult pauropods in the order Tetramerocerata. Before the discovery of D. cuenoti, adult pauropods were thought to have invariably nine pairs of legs.
